Morocco’s response to EU official’s hostile statements on Kingdom stirs Spanish far-right

Rabat reiterated the Moroccanness of Melilla and Ceuta in reaction to “hostile statements” made by Margaritis Schinas, the vice-president of the European Commission in charge of migration.

Last week, the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs filed a diplomatic reprimand against Schinas for repeatedly asserting that the two autonomous North African cities are Spain and the European Union’s borders.

Spanish outlet El Pais has access to a dozen “hostile statements” made by Schinas regarding Morocco and “the Moroccan cities of Ceuta and Melilla” in the annex to the verbal protest note that Moroccan diplomacy sent to the EU Delegation in Rabat.

Morocco said that the vice-president of the Commission referred to “the hybrid threat” represented by the use of migrants as a “weapon.”

“It occurred for the first time on the Greek-Turkish border of Evros in 2020 (…) and a few months later in the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa,” explained Schinas in the course of an interview.

“All around us there are forces, regimes, leaders (…) authoritarian elements that will not hesitate to use human suffering and people as pawns in political operations to harm us,” claimed the official.

European diplomatic sources expressed to El Pais their “discontent” with the Moroccan attitude.

According to EL PAÍS, the Moroccan letter is seen by its sources as being at odds with the Joint Declaration between Spain and Morocco, made on February 2 after the 12th Morocco-Spain High-Level Meeting in Rabat.

Particular emphasis was placed in the declaration text on “mutual respect and the implementation of the commitments and agreements signed by the two parties, in which issues of common interest are addressed in a spirit of trust, far from unilateral actions or accomplished facts.”

This revelation pertaining to the correspondence comes amidst a feisty election in Spain.

Spanish parties, especially the far-right, are instrumentalizing the Moroccan assertions about Ceuta and Melilla to drive anti-Moroccan narratives forward.