Macron declares France’s “exceptional partnership” with Morocco at the start of his official trip

MADRID 28 Oct. () –

The French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the King of Morocco, Mohamed VI, have reflected the “exceptional partnership” that both countries maintain in a statement published on the occasion of Macron’s arrival in Rabat this Monday, the first of the three days of official visit to the Alawite kingdom.

Both leaders have advocated a “transition towards a new era of solid relations between Morocco and France, within the framework of a renewed exceptional partnership and a strategic roadmap for the years to come,” the Moroccan Royal House published in a statement. .

In addition, the two have called for an “immediate cessation” of the attacks in Gaza and Lebanon and have highlighted the need to “protect civilian populations and the importance of guaranteeing and expediting the delivery of sufficient humanitarian aid, ending the at the same time to regional escalation”.

At the beginning of the visit, they had signed a total of 22 agreements in areas such as railways, energy, ports, firefighting, culture, water, education and agriculture.

Macron has also published a brief message on X in which he highlights the “new chapter” in relations. “This day in Rabat we open a new chapter in the long history between Morocco and France for the next generation,” he highlighted.

The Moroccan monarch and his son, Crown Prince Mulay, received Macron on the tarmac of Rabat Airport, where the French leader arrived accompanied by nine of his ministers. The event, with great pomp, included 21 cannon salutes, according to the French press. Afterwards, the two leaders greeted a crowd in the streets of the Moroccan capital that they toured in an open-top car.

Among Macron’s companions are his wife, Brigitte Macron, as well as the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot or the Minister of the Economy, Antoine Armand. There are also businessmen from groups such as LVMH, Veolia, Orange, Transavia or Total, as well as artists, athletes and intellectuals of Franco-Moroccan culture such as the comedian Jamel Debbouze, the writers Leïla Slimani and Edgar Morin or the actor Gérard Darmon.

“OFFICIAL APOLOGY” FOR COLONIALISM

Meanwhile, from the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), they have urged Marcon to ask for “official apologies” for the excesses of the colonial era in an open letter that recalls that this Tuesday, October 29, the National Day is celebrated. of the Disappeared in Morocco.

France should “offer an official apology to the Moroccan people for the abuses suffered under French colonialism, repair the resulting damage and respect the Moroccan people’s right to self-determination,” the NGO appeals.

In particular, the AMDH denounces “the exploitation and plundering of Moroccan wealth” during the time of the Protectorate and the “political and civil crimes committed against resistance fighters, men and women.”

In addition, it demands that France lift the secrecy on documents relating to missing Moroccans, such as the left-wing political leader Mehdi Ben Barka, kidnapped on October 29, 1965 in Paris by French police agents under orders of the Moroccan government. “French agents coordinated with the Zionist and American intelligence services (…) handed him over to the Moroccan regime,” denounces the AMDH, which is why they consider France to be “complicit in this crime.”

In a more current key, the AMDH urges Paris to “stop supporting the crimes of the Zionist entity (Israel) against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples.”

Likewise, it calls for “reviewing all association and free trade agreements that violate the rights of the Moroccan people and depleting their wealth” and “stop encouraging the Moroccan State to play the role of gendarme against migrants and asylum seekers who go to Europe”.

Macron’s visit has been postponed several times, but now Paris seems to want to resume its traditional alliance with Rabat after an evident rapprochement with Morocco’s rival, Algeria, since Macron’s re-election in 2022, a change of course materialized in July when Paris expressed his support for a solution to the Western Sahara dispute “within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty.”