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🇪🇸 Spain /Elections & Politics

Migration crisis stirs Moroccan election that voters had been turning their backs on

From El País · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Analysis Named sources Ongoing story
  • The migration crisis involving Ceuta has revived attention around Morocco’s legislative elections, after polling suggested turnout could fall to about one-third of registered voters.
  • Moroccan ministers have revived claims to sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla, while also stressing the importance of the strategic partnership with Spain.
  • The dispute challenges a 2022 Rabat-Madrid understanding against unilateral sovereignty claims and has become an issue before campaigning officially begins.

Morocco’s migration crisis around Ceuta has jolted an election that many citizens had appeared ready to ignore. Legislative elections are due on the 23rd, but four months ago the voluntary electoral register was still missing 12 million voters, or 57 percent of the potential electorate.

Morocco will not give up a single inch of its national territory.

· Nizar BarakaThe Moroccan minister and Istiqlal leader referred to the country’s claim over Ceuta and Melilla.

Only half of the 17.5 million registered voters cast ballots in the election five years ago. Recent polling suggested participation could fall to one-third of those registered. The sovereignty dispute over the Spanish North African cities of Ceuta and Melilla has now injected a sharper national question into the campaign, even before the official campaign begins on Friday.

Three ministers have reopened the issue of Rabat’s commitment to avoid unilateral sovereignty claims, an understanding reached with Madrid in 2022 after the previous Ceuta migration crisis. That agreement accompanied Spain’s shift on the Western Sahara issue. Nizar Baraka, minister of public works and water and leader of the nationalist Istiqlal party, said Morocco would not give up “a single inch of its national territory,” referring to Ceuta and Melilla. He also emphasized “the importance of the strategic partnership with Spain,” Morocco’s leading trading partner and second-largest investor.

The importance of the strategic partnership with Spain.

· Nizar BarakaBaraka stressed the bilateral relationship while discussing Morocco’s sovereignty claim.

Earlier, Islamic Affairs Minister Ahmed Tufiq, an independent appointed directly by King Mohammed VI, referred indirectly to Morocco’s historic claim during a religious ceremony presided over by the king. He mentioned Islamic scholars born in Ceuta before the city came under Spanish sovereignty in 1580 and referred to their “holy struggle to liberate the occupied cities.”

Holy struggle to liberate the occupied cities.

· Ahmed TufiqThe Islamic Affairs minister referred indirectly to Ceuta and Melilla during a ceremony attended by the king.

Justice Minister Abdelatif Uahbi has led the government’s call for negotiations over sovereignty during the migration crisis. Uahbi, a leader of the Authenticity and Modernity Party, has defended Morocco’s “historic right” to the two cities. Spain’s Foreign Ministry responded on Aug. 21 that Ceuta and Melilla form part of Spain’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, recognized internationally.

Historic right.

· Abdelatif UahbiThe justice minister’s description of Morocco’s claim to Ceuta and Melilla.
About this summary

Originally published by El País in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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