Sánchez's stay in Marrakech is a political message of friendship, according to the Moroccan press

First there was joy for the country chosen by President Pedro Sánchez to spend his summer vacations. “Welcome, Mr. Sánchez!”, headlined, for example, Le Collimateur, a small Moroccan digital newspaper. The Rabat authorities wanted the news to get out and that is why the first outlet to report it was, on Tuesday afternoon, Rue 20, a newspaper considered to be related to the security apparatus, which even uploaded a video with the head of government to its website. Spaniard, his wife, Begoña Gómez, and their two daughters touring the famous Jmaa el Fnaa square in Marrakech.

Then came the turn to interpret Sánchez's gesture. “Pedro Sánchez's visit to Morocco is very symbolic,” says the newspaper Le 360, described as the closest to the royal palace and which belongs to Mounir Majidi, the king's private secretary, according to Moroccan journalistic sources..

“His trip to Morocco seeks to send a message of friendship to Morocco, since relations between Rabat and Madrid have rarely been so solid thanks, in particular, to the irrevocable support of the Spanish Government for the option of autonomy for Western Sahara under sovereignty Moroccan”, adds. This support was revealed in the letter that Sánchez sent to the monarch on March 14, 2022, the content of which the Spanish Government has not disclosed..

“Pedro Sánchez, on vacation in Morocco: the PP rants”, headlines H24 Info, another digital, setting the tone for criticism of the main opposition party, but also Sumar and, even more so, Vox for not supporting the president in its effort to strengthen ties with its neighbor to the south.

Rock star

“His detractors, especially in the PP and in the far-right Vox party, particularly Moroccan, have wanted to take advantage of the occasion and have criticized Morocco as the destination chosen for their vacations,” continues Le 360. “The right and the extreme right, as well as the extreme left, harshly attacked the concessions made by the Spanish government to Rabat”, but the “Moroccan ogre” is no longer scary, as was demonstrated in the last elections. His cursers “have not hesitated to cover themselves with ridicule”. “His youth, his modernity and his cool attitude make Sánchez a close friend of rock on the Spanish political scene,” he concludes..

Sánchez has gone to Morocco twice so far this year, the second now on a private visit, but where he said he wanted to travel was to Algeria in a typical presidential boutade. “I would love to be the one to go to Algeria,” he declared, at the end of August 2022, during a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz near Berlin..

It does not seem that, for now, such a trip is possible, judging by the comments that the presidential vacation arouses in the Algerian press. Sánchez “has become a hostage in the hands of the majzen [circles of royal power], incapable of defending the interests of his country against Rabat,” writes Echrouk, Algeria's main daily.. His chronicle is full of lies about the alleged business of Begoña Gómez in Morocco, while letting fall, in its headline, that the Sánchez family travels at expenses paid by King Mohamed VI. The Moncloa denied it in advance.

“In matters of treason, corruption and deceit, only the first step counts; the others occur naturally and this is the case of Pedro Sánchez” with his vacations in Morocco, affirms, for its part, La Patrie News, an Algerian newspaper considered close to the Army. Sánchez “is without a doubt the victim of a form of blackmail, judging by the haughty and domineering way in which Rabat dictates his instructions to Madrid,” he adds.. Finally, he expressed the wish that “an individual who betrayed the Saharawi cause and broke the consensus that prevailed in Spain” not continue as president..

President Sánchez and the PSOE have avoided, for years, criticizing the violation of human rights by the Moroccan authorities. For this reason, the PSOE MEPs —not the other socialists— voted, on January 19, against a resolution urging Morocco to respect them, releasing, among others, three influential journalists sentenced to between five and 15 years.. During Sánchez's stay in Marrakech, the Moroccan Justice has continued to act as a repressive arm.

Earlier this week, the court of first instance in Ain Sebaa (Casablanca) sentenced Said Boukioud, a 48-year-old Moroccan, to five years in prison for alleged offenses against the king. At the end of December 2020, when he was living in Qatar, Boukioud criticized on Facebook the establishment of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel.. Foreign policy is an exclusive competence of the monarch.

When he learned that he was being investigated by the Prosecutor's Office, Boukioud deleted those messages and closed his Facebook account, but he was still sentenced two and a half years after writing them, his lawyer, Hassan Essouni, revealed last Wednesday.. “It is incomprehensible,” declared the lawyer.