When The Battle of Algiers premiered at the Venice Film Festival, 60 years ago this month, the French delegation refused to attend.
From the moment of its shooting in the aftermath of Algeria’s liberation war, Gillo Pontecorvo’s film was deeply political. https://t.co/vGpgLqsIFB
🇲🇦🇪🇸 | Spain has a very simple solution to Morocco’s repeated threats against Ceuta and Melilla:
- Support the secession of the Berber Rif
- Support Algeria’s access to the Atlantic
- Support the independence of Western Sahara
Todo el armamento que está enviando España a Ucrania debe ser redirigido al Frente Polisario para la liberación del SÁHARA contra Marruecos, nuestro verdadero enemigo
For too long Morocco has illegally and brutally occupied Western Sahara, committing atrocities on its people including internment camps.
It’s time for Morocco to withdraw from Western Sahara and put an end its brutal colonial empire.
🇪🇸🇲🇦 Morocco’s hostility toward Spain may have less to do with migration, and more to do with Algeria
Just days before the Ceuta crisis, Pedro Sánchez travelled to Algeria for the first time in 4 years to repair relations, expand energy ties, boost investment and revive high-level strategic cooperation.
That matters because Algeria is Morocco’s regional rival, the main backer of the Polisario Front and the country standing on the opposite side of the Western Sahara dispute.
Spain has seen this movie before. In 2021, Madrid allowed Polisario leader Brahim Ghali to receive medical treatment, Morocco recalled its ambassador, relations collapsed and thousands of migrants suddenly crossed into Ceuta.
Morocco also still refuses to recognise Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla, so migration pressure is not merely a border-management problem, it can also function as a very convenient geopolitical pressure valve.
There is currently no public evidence proving Sánchez’s Algeria visit triggered the latest crisis.
But pretending the timing, the 2021 precedent, Morocco’s rivalry with Algeria and its claim over Ceuta are all completely unrelated would require an impressive commitment to coincidence.
Source: Counter Intelligence Global (Telegram) / Writer: Ian