Opinion

Morocco-France: Chronicle of a divorce foretold

On the night of the World Cup final in Qatar, many Moroccans supported Argentina, some out of love for Messi, others out of hatred for the arrogance displayed by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Except in the era of former president François Mitterrand, never has a French president done so much damage to French-Moroccan relations as Macron and his team are doing. Those who know the ins and outs of these relations know that Paris and Rabat are already experiencing a diplomatic divorce foretold. Moreover, they are convinced that there is no point in sweeping what is wrong under the carpet, because the first step to solving a problem is to recognise it. Even so, Macron is not comfortable talking about problems and misunderstandings because he has no choice but to apply the old diplomatic rule: an issue that has been postponed is already solved.  

It is clear that the issue the French president has been putting off for a long time is his position on the Sahara dossier following the support announced by the US, Germany and Spain for Morocco's proposed autonomy plan to settle the long-running conflict.

However, the Sahara issue represents only the visible part of the iceberg. Paris does not like Morocco's achievements on the African continent and its newly built diplomatic bridges, while several African countries are showing the French army the door because no sovereign country would accept French tutelage. In this sense, many have the feeling that France is doing everything it can to prevent Morocco from imposing itself at the head of the Maghreb and from being one of the main players on the African continent.

There is no doubt that a friendly country is not one that gives you roses, but one that takes away your thorns. Even so, Macron is one of those presidents who neither gives you roses nor removes thorns; on the contrary, Macron gave orders to his teams to sow more thorns in Morocco's path so that it would walk with a limp. It is no secret that for several months France has been conducting a large-scale campaign to discredit the Kingdom of Morocco and tarnish its image through its media armada.

The truth is that France is currently losing its cultural and political influence in Morocco, and that the new generations of Moroccans are now opting for English as their language of reading and work, so they are less dedicated to studying the French language that had dominated the Moroccan cultural and political scene for decades. Moreover, following the reconciliation between Spain and Morocco, many Moroccan families are turning to Spanish as a language of the future in Morocco, given the growing interests between the two states and the opportunities that this new reality offers.

With his offensive policy against Morocco, President Macron is not only writing the chronicle of an announced divorce with Morocco, but he is accelerating the process of France's cultural exit by throwing into the dustbin of history all the achievements of French cultural policy in the Kingdom, so that the French language will soon say goodbye to the French way. The painful part of this whole story is the damage done by French foreign policy makers to human relations between two peoples with particular ties who, today, fear that "la belle époque" already belongs to the past and will never return.