The long break lasted eight years.

For the first time since 2015, a government plane took off from Madrid for Rabat on Wednesday afternoon.

On board were Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and a dozen ministers.

In Madrid there has been talk of a “historic” meeting for days.

A good twenty bilateral agreements are to be signed this Thursday at the end of the government consultations.

The pictures from the Moroccan capital are intended to show the whole world that the great crisis is finally over - and will not be repeated: In Rabat, the Spanish government wants to use a new mechanism to lay the foundations for the partnership on the western Mediterranean to no longer exist dangerously cool with almost reliable regularity.

Hans Christian Roessler

Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb based in Madrid.

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Until recently, it was questionable whether the government meeting would take place.

It has been postponed several times.

It remained uncertain until Wednesday whether King Mohammed VI.

Sánchez will grant an audience.

Before the Spanish Prime Minister left, the king called him to say that the two would not see each other in Rabat.

Podemos politicians boycott trip

"The summit will be a thermometer, a test of how far relations have normalized," says Eduard Soler.

If both sides don't work together, it can have dangerous repercussions in very sensitive areas, such as the fight against Islamist terrorism.

Spain and the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco as well as the Canary Islands would feel the consequences, such as increasing migration flows, says Soler, who teaches international relations at the Universidad Autónoma in Barcelona and is particularly concerned with the Maghreb region.

The great relationship crisis only ended a year ago and still has domestic political consequences today.

Sánchez' deputy Yolanda Díaz and all other ministers of the coalition partner Podemos are not traveling with them.

Similar to the right-wing opposition, the concessions made by the head of government towards Rabat went too far.

Sánchez had paid a heavy price to repair Mediterranean relations.

In order not to upset Rabat before the summit, two weeks ago the members of his socialist PSOE party in the European Parliament rejected the latest resolution, which criticized Morocco more than ever before because of the deterioration in press freedom and allegations of corruption.

Relations with Morocco must be based on mutual respect, and that's something you have to swallow toads for, the socialist party said.

Sánchez' turnaround in the Western Sahara conflict

In Madrid, one wonders whether the rapprochement with Morocco will pay off.

Last spring, after more than 40 years, Sánchez practically gave up Spanish neutrality in the dispute over Western Sahara.

In a letter he called the Moroccan autonomy plan of 2007 the "most serious, realistic and credible basis for a solution to the conflict".

As an autonomous region, the former Spanish colony would then remain part of Morocco.

This isolated Spain in the international community, which insists on a negotiated solution acceptable to all sides under the leadership of the UN.

Morocco is urging its European partners to follow the example of then-US President Donald Trump, who recognized Western Sahara as part of Morocco.