You can’t have your cake and eat it too.  (No se puede estar en la procesión y repicando).  With regards to North Africa, Spanish foreign policy had two options:  balancing between all the players or a preferential relationship with one of them.  Aznar’s government tried to maintain an equilibrium and the result was a crowning success.  Zapatero’s government has opted for a preferential relationship with Morocco while relationships with others have deteriorated.  This has not even helped resolve problems in the neighboring Alaouite country. 

 

The regional balancing act of Spain’s North Africa policy was one of the best legacies of Aznar’s foreign policy.  The results show this.  The policy was able to improve relations with Algeria and Mauritania, sponsor a plan for Western Sahara (Baker Plan) that received unanimous support from the Security Council, and it was able to overcome crisis with Morocco, cultivating a prosperous relationship through mutual respect epitomized by the Marrakech Summit in December 2003. 

 

It suffices to say that at this summit, with regards to Western Sahara, Morocco presented a plan to resolve the conflict for the first time in its history, despite the fact that the UN considered it insufficient.  There were still pending issues, such as maritime borders and immigration, but there were progressive perspectives.

 

Zapatero changed all of this; it is unclear as to whether or not this was a form of payment for a debt.  He made it clear that Spain was backing Morocco’s stance.  This preference was demonstrated with impolite gestures towards Algeria like when he decided to stop in on the country reception at the Spanish-Moroccan Summit, but refused to so the same for the Spanish-Algerian one.  Along with such gestures, this preference has also been illustrated in acts:  he initiated the fishing agreement between the European Union and Morocco to loot Western Sahara waters.  Also, he supported an unknown Western Sahara “autonomy project,” which just days ago the US ambassador in Algiers had verified “did not exist.”  In reality, the named “autonomy project” has only one article: to “recognize the annexation and sovereignty of Morocco over the territory.” 

 

In these circumstances, anyone can understand why Algeria, who chooses to defend the international legality of Western Sahara, has decided to raise gas prices for Spain on the same day that Minister Moratinos published in the government daily an opinion piece describing the Moroccan proposal, which is in open opposition to the same legality, as a “new” element of “indubitable interest.”

 

We can only hope that, when King Juan Carlos says that Spain accepts the free determination for the Sahara, he doesn’t give the expression the same twisted meaning that the Spanish and Moroccan governments have given it – the exclusion of the possibility that Western Sahara opt for independence.  This doesn’t seem to be the best moment to cause any more harm to the Crown.