Spain responded to Morocco about the occupied presidencies of Sebta and Melilla after Morocco denounced the interference in Hispano-Moroccan affairs and the virulent remarks against Morocco by the Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of migrating Margaritis Schinas.
The tendentious declarations of the Greek Margaritis Schinas, were the subject of sharp protests from Rabat to the embassy of the European Union in Morocco. The Kingdom expressed its “categorical rejection” of the statements of the European official, calling on him to not interfere in bilateral affairs.
In addition, Morocco, through the Directorate of the European Union at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, has attached in its missive a list including all the overruns of the Greek and its hostile positions. in Morocco since May 2021, while calling for “a definitive end to this attitude of hostility to maintain calm cooperation with the EU”.
Rabat, who raised his voice about the statements of the European official, recalled having expressed “on several occasions, through various channels, the rejection of previous similar statements by the Vice-President of the Commission”.
During a European forum on security and defense on May 11, the Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Migration took the liberty of attacking Morocco on migration, forgetting the migratory dramas taking place in its own country.
Schinas claimed that “Morocco exploits the migrant map politically”, accusing it of resorting to “hybrid threats” and using migrants as “a weapon” by mixing events on the Greek-Turkish border (Evros in 2020), and those in the occupied enclaves of Sebta and Melilla.
Morocco’s response was not appreciated by certain European circles, particularly in Spain, who are still driven by a crying neo-colonialism, a shameful paternalism and a feeling of superiority in the face of Africans.
Yet it is the intervention of the European official which should surprise, and the interference in bilateral affairs which poses a problem, especially concerning the problem of the cities of Sebta and Melilla which should be dealt with only in a bilateral framework as stipulated in the Spanish-Moroccan joint statement.
Spain, which got wind of Morocco’s response, also responded to escalate the matter, and formally complained in a verbal note of the expression “Moroccan towns of Sebta and Melilla” used by the Moroccan diplomacy.
The Spanish government is said to have “categorically” rejected the language used to refer to the two cities. Morocco and Spain each in turn reject the terminology used for the two occupied cities, located in northern Morocco.