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this Emmanuel Macron’s decision Opinion among the French political class on a major change in France’s position on Western Sahara is far from unanimous.
Apparently, this was appreciated by everyone who had been calling for this change for months. However, many voices on the left condemned the move as a “betrayal” and “clumsy” that has plunged Algeria into a serious crisis.
The crisis is indeed serious. Algiers announced on Tuesday, July 30, the withdrawal of its ambassador to Paris, a few hours after Rabat published the letter from Emmanuel Macron informing Mohammed VI of his country’s new position.
France: Right and far right applaud Macron’s decision
That is, the 2007 Moroccan autonomy plan “now constitutes the only basis for a just, lasting and negotiated political solution in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council” and that “the present and future of Sahrawi Occidental falls within the sphere of responsibility of Sahrawi Occidental”. Moroccan sovereignty framework. Macron somehow hinted in his last sentence Moroccan sovereignty In Western Sahara.
For Algeria, the current French government has thus taken “with great ease and casualness” a “step that no other French government has ever thought necessary to take.”
In France, the alliance with Rabat was unsurprisingly praised by the Franco-Moroccan Minister of Culture, Rachida Datti, who hailed Day X as “a historic day in Franco-Moroccan relations” and a “historical process” that was “of vital importance and irreversible”.
🇫🇷🇲🇦 It is an honor to be here in Morocco on this historic day for Franco-Moroccan relations. This course of history is inevitable and irreversible. We are all its architects.
Tribute to His Majesty King Mohammed VI and the President of the Republic… pic.twitter.com/2ed9fYSygt
— Rachida Datti (@datirachida) July 30, 2024
Although she is not yet a minister, Rachida Datti pleaded during her visit to Rabat in May 2023 to “rebalance” Macron’s Maghreb policy, which was then considered favorable to Algeria, and asked France to recognize “Moroccan sovereignty” over Western Sahara. She was accompanied by Eric Sciotti (right), leader of the Republican Party, which split into two wings in the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7.
The Republican presidential candidate, who allied himself with the far right in the last legislative elections, also responded quickly to the news. “As a historic defender of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara, I welcome President Macron’s evolution on this important issue,” Sciotti wrote, calling for an “end to seven years of useless vexing, incomprehensible strategies and absurd hostility towards our historical ally.”
As a historic defender of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara, I welcome President Macron’s progress on this important issue.
I hope that this declaration will lead to the necessary and lasting reconciliation with our Moroccan friends.
The top priority is to turn…
— Eric Sciotti (@ECiotti) July 30, 2024
Macron accused of ‘treason’ in France for alliance with Rabat
Marine Le Pen had the same experience, arguing that the French government had “delayed too long” in taking such a stance.
While considering Western Sahara “an integral part of the Kingdom of Sharif”, the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen used a term popular among the French political class during the Algerian War: peace. “We must support all the pragmatic initiatives of the Moroccan authorities that will consolidate peace in the territory,” she wrote on X.
The French government has been too late to recognize Morocco’s decades-long continued commitment to the stability and security of Western Sahara, an integral part of the Sharif Kingdom. We must support all practical initiatives of … https://t.co/SxM0VGrxk2
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) July 30, 2024
Condemnation of Macron’s decision came mainly from the left. Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the EELV (Ecologists), accused Emmanuel Macron of betraying “France’s historical position based on respect for international law and the right of peoples to self-determination” by recognizing Morocco’s “sovereignty over a territory that has been decolonized”.
The politician considers it “a serious decision and a historic mistake made by a head of state without a government or a majority”, which makes him believe that the “international fiasco” of Emmanuel Macron continues, triggering a “diplomatic crisis in the summer”, without taking into account the Olympic Truce.
Macron’s international fiasco continues:
Start a diplomatic crisis in midsummer✅
(Showing that the Olympic Truce is perlimpinpin pink)
It betrays France’s historical position based on respect for international law and… law. https://t.co/Ggab82EDPB
— Marine Tondelier (@marinetondelier) July 30, 2024
Sabrina Sebaihi, a French-Algerian MP, shared Tondelier’s tweet.
The dissatisfaction was shared by Fabian Roussel, leader of the French Communist Party, who said the French president had “betrayed France’s historic and balanced position on the rights of the Sahrawi people and on UN resolutions.”
Roselle also accused Macron of provoking “a serious diplomatic crisis to continue the plunder of Africa’s vast natural wealth, including Western Sahara.”
Emmanuel Macron betrays France’s historic and balanced position on the rights of the Sahrawi people and UN resolutions
He has triggered a serious diplomatic crisis and continues to plunder Africa, including the vast natural wealth of Western Sahara. https://t.co/6A8cjOnxRA
— Fabien Roussel (@Fabien_Roussel) July 30, 2024
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