The Spanish Are Confused About How To Handle Their Divergences With Algeria

The vexed issue of the Algerian sanctions imposed on Spain is rapidly interacting with the announcement of the birth of the “Association of companies in crisis with Algeria”, which is the birth that its founders want as a front to put pressure on the government of Pedro Sanchez to resolve their situation after incurring losses estimated at hundreds of millions of euros.
The Spanish companies affected by the Algerian sanctions are demanding financial compensation from the government after it failed to overcome the crisis it created with Madrid’s decision to abandon its historical neutrality on the Sahrawi issue and move towards supporting the so-called autonomy plan presented by the Moroccan Makhzen regime in 2007, which is not recognized by the United Nations and the vast majority of countries in the world.
The Spanish companies affected by the crisis between Algeria and Madrid did not reach this stage of escalation with the Sanchez government until all attempts to save the situation had failed and the last card played by the Spanish party, represented by the involvement of the European Union in the crisis, had been burned by urging it to put pressure on Algeria, an attempt that the Algerian authorities dealt with firmly.
The Sanchez government initially tried to communicate with the European Commission in order to launch an aid plan for the companies affected by the Algerian sanctions, but this attempt did not bear fruit, which was behind the decision of the Spanish traders, who were fed up with the government’s mistakes, to resort to activating the escalation card as an inescapable option to recover their rights.
According to official data, Spain was Algeria’s second largest customer in the world in 2021, after Italy, but the crisis caused by the Sanchez government led to a huge bleeding among Spanish companies dealing with the Algerian market, causing losses of more than 800 million euros. According to preliminary figures released by the Algerian-Spanish Chamber of Commerce and Industry, these losses are distributed among about 600 institutions, more than a hundred of which are present on Algerian soil, according to Spanish media reports.
According to the same sources, Spanish companies involved in the Algerian market fear the definitive loss of a profitable area in which they have been working for many years, in favor of Italian and French companies, which have been able to take advantage of the new situation and offer their products as alternatives, especially those related to spare parts and the manufacture of ceramics, paper, cardboard, oils, machinery and mechanical devices and plastic.
The fears of the Spanish were not limited to the loss of the Algerian market, but extended to companies with profitable projects in Algeria, such as “Naturgy”, “Repsol”, “Iberdrola” and “Cepsa”, which are active in the energy sector, as well as “Indra” and “Tecnicas Ronidas”, which are in dispute with Sonatrach over the completion of an oil refinery, and “Sacyr” and “Acciona”, as well as “Indra” and “Tecnicas Ronidas”, which are in dispute with Sonatrach over the completion of an oil refinery, and the companies “Sacyr” and “Acciona”, which operate three desalination plants, among many others that are difficult to name.
Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, visited Algeria last month and pleaded kindly to advance the normalization of Algerian-Spanish relations and then the return of the flow of Spanish goods to Algeria, but the Algerian side did not give any guarantees to the European official, as long as the Spanish government maintains its position that caused the current crisis with Algeria.