The 'Ghali error', trigger of the definitive crisis

• Foreign Affairs Sánchez supports for the first time that the Sahara be an autonomous province of Morocco

• Reactions Yolanda Díaz and Podemos flatly reject the historical turn of the Government with the Sahara: "The only solution is the referendum"

In the turn given yesterday by Pedro Sánchez to Spanish foreign policy there has been a historical trigger -the failed decolonization of the

, an international trigger -the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the territory by the

and a final trigger, attributable 100% to the current Government: the reception of the leader of

, Brahim Ghali, to be treated for Covid in a hospital in

.

This decision, justified by the Executive as a humanitarian act and defended as an unimportant fact, had profound consequences, as it was used by Morocco to provoke a diplomatic crisis of enormous importance.

knew how to take advantage of the weaknesses of

, which accumulated many when it decided to welcome Ghali in April 2021: the consequences of the 2008 economic crisis, never fully overcome;

a pandemic that had hit Spain particularly hard;

the loss of a relevant role on the international scene, and an internal, social and political division, which reached (and reaches) the coalition government itself.

Immediately, Morocco withdrew its ambassador from Madrid, who has not yet returned to Spain.

In May, the autonomous city of

suffered a massive and unusual influx of immigrants, encouraged and allowed by Rabat.

And in the summer, it was already clear that the dispute was not limited to solving the problem caused by Ghali's entry into Spain, but also extended to the very nature of the relations that both countries had maintained for four decades, to the stability of Ceuta and

, and sovereignty over the Sahara.

Brahim Ghali, during a visit to the Tindouf (Algeria) camps in February 2021.AP

"new stage"

The Moroccan attitude was unusually hostile.

Feeling supported after the decision of the United States to recognize its sovereignty over the Sahara in December 2020 -adopted by the Administration of Donald Trump and not corrected by that of Joe Biden-, she felt that it was time to overcome the historical support for the right self-determination of the Saharawi people championed by most European countries, with Spain at the forefront, and by the UN.

In the summer, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya -who is charged in a

court for this case-, was dismissed in the government crisis carried out by Sánchez and replaced by José Manuel Albares, who faced the recomposition of relations with Morocco.

It wasn't going to be easy.

In August, the Alaouite king,

, expressed in public what was already evident to Spain in private: that a "new stage" had to be opened in relations between the two countries, that it was time for "commitments", that this new stage had to be "unprecedented" and that the bilateral crisis had to be "an occasion to review the foundations and determinants that govern" relations between Rabat and Madrid.

Mohamed VI's speech was celebrated by the Government as the first step towards resolving the crisis, but weeks passed and the ambassador still did not return to Madrid.

In December,

took the step of recognizing the path of autonomy for the Sahara within Morocco, isolating Spain's position a little more.

The outbreak of the war in Ukraine came to put the icing on the cake of this situation, by further stressing relations regarding the importance that gas from

, Morocco's neighbor and historical enemy, acquired for Spain and Europe.

In the midst of the Russian invasion, on March 2 Melilla suffered the biggest jump to the fence in its history, in an immigrant entry that was described by the Government as unusually violent.

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• Morocco

• Occidental Sahara

• Melilla

• United States

• Mohammed VI

• Saragossa

• Arancha Gonzalez Laya

• Germany

• Europe

• Algeria

• Joe Biden

• donald trump

• Ceuta

• Coronavirus

• Pedro Sanchez

InmigraciónInterior will install new 'inverted combs' on the Melilla fence and will improve the anti-riot material

Foreign AffairsSánchez supports for the first time that the Sahara is an autonomous province of Morocco

Historic turn on the SaharaThe Government trusts that the largest purchase of gas due to the Russian invasion will calm Algeria before the turn in the Sahara

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