Madrid Plays the Appeasement Card, and France’s Fate Hangs in the Balance with Sejourné’s Visit to Rabat

Just after the failure of the visit of the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, to Algeria and before the departure of the Prime Minister of Madrid to the Kingdom of Morocco, the German Minister of Economy and Climate Change, Robert Habeck, had signed an agreement to promote the production of “green” hydrogen and to transfer it to Germany, through pipelines linking the two countries, passing through Tunisia, then Italy and Austria.
At first glance, this agreement seems to be aimed primarily at Spain, which has not been able to restore the shine to bilateral relations that have been faltering for almost two years since Madrid decided to abandon its positive neutrality on the Sahrawi issue. But there is a third party involved, France, which has also been unable to formulate a responsible position. This is because of its colonial past in Algeria, just as it is trying to play both sides in its relations with Algeria.
If Algeria strengthens its energy relations with the largest country of the European Union, represented by Germany, its counterpart in the geopolitical calculations is France, which is the second most powerful country in the European Union, followed by Italy and Spain, which are competing to win the role of exclusive distributor of Algerian gas in the old continent.
From the recent developments in Algeria’s relations with its partners in the countries of the old continent, it seems that there are two axes, which cannot be mistaken by any approach, competing to obtain more privileges than what Algeria offers in terms of large energy resources to compensate for the cessation of the import of Russian gas from the old continent due to the war in Ukraine. They are the Italy-Germany axis and the second axis formed by France and Spain.
The matter becomes clearer if we observe the movement of Algerian diplomacy. If the Algeria-Italy-Germany axis is active, it means that the Algeria-France-Spain axis will become cold. Immediately after the failure of the visit of the Spanish Foreign Minister to Algeria and before the arrival of the Prime Minister of Madrid, Pedro Sanchez, in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, the German Minister of Economy and Climate Change, Robert Habeck, had signed an agreement to increase the production of “green” hydrogen in Algeria and to transport it by pipeline to Germany. It reaches the two countries via Tunisia, then Italy and Austria, just 72 hours before Sanchez’s plane lands in Rabat.
The agreement signed in Algeria with the German official was clear and did not require much thought to dismantle its symbols. It was aimed directly at both Paris and Madrid, and meant that Algeria had the cards to turn the tables on those who wanted to harm its interests.
Although the misunderstanding between Algeria and Madrid was represented by the failure of the visit of its foreign minister to Algeria and the attempt to provoke it with the head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, on his way to Rabat, France played on the same chord through the statements of its foreign minister, Stephane Sejourné, of rapprochement with the Moroccan regime, under instructions, as he said, from Emmanuel Macron, and this was accompanied by leaks about a date for this visit to Rabat, which has not yet been confirmed.
Algeria, by involving the largest country of the old continent, represented by Germany, in the bet on the production of “clean energy” (green hydrogen) and its export to Germany via Italy, after having decided on its exports of fossil energy (gas) on the same axis, it wants to confirm to the side The French, along with the Spanish, said that the axis to which it belongs will expand later and continue for decades, and will not stop at traditional energy. This is the message that the Spanish side has received, which does not seem to want to complicate its relations with Algeria more than it is currently complicated, while the situation remains with France commented on the outcome of the upcoming visit of its Foreign Minister to the Kingdom of Morocco in the coming days.
While the French position on the issue of memory remains unchanged, the Spanish government was quick to clarify some points related to Sanchez’s visit to Morocco last week, which spoke of fictitious figures for Spanish investments in the Kingdom of Morocco, in what appeared to be a provocation to Algeria. The Spanish Minister of Transport, Oscar Puente, was forced to come out and deny the amount of 45 billion euros that the Alaoui Palace press claimed Madrid would invest in infrastructure projects in Morocco, stressing that what was reported in this regard were merely “interpretations” of Sanchez’s statements during his visit to Rabat.
The Spanish minister wrote in a tweet on the “X” platform: “The one who will invest 45 billion euros in its infrastructure is Morocco, and the one who chooses the contracts is our companies, and that is why Sanchez went to Morocco”. He even went so far as to criticize what he considered false news. He commented: “24 hours of lies”.