Bon week-end (quand même)

In his latest report to the UN Security Council, António Guterres calls on all parties to engage in good-faith negotiations and explore genuine autonomy for the people of the Sahara in line with Resolution 2797.

Another diplomatic slap for Algiers and a brutal return to square one: by unilaterally postponing its high-level summit with Algeria, scheduled for October 20 and 21, Madrid has shattered hopes of the reconciliation so loudly celebrated by Abdelmadjid Tebboune. The case of Ayoub Aïssiou, the once all-powerful businessman who has become the regime’s sworn enemy from his Spanish exile, is the real trigger behind this latest crisis. In Algiers, euphoria is giving way to panic.

At a time when the Moroccan-Spanish partnership has never shown such resilience, the announcement that King Felipe VI will visit Ceuta and Melilla on October 13 and 14 strikes a jarring note—and looks like a thinly disguised capitulation to the escalating demands of Spain’s right and radical right. The trip, the Spanish monarch’s first since ascending the throne, drags relations between the two countries back into a colonial anachronism and runs counter to every logic of de-escalation.

As outlets such as France 24 suffer convenient bouts of amnesia whenever France’s own technological misdeeds are concerned, yet another smear campaign is being waged against Morocco over the increasingly tiresome Pegasus affair. With another Amnesty International report, built on marginal testimony, providing the latest pretext, the double standard remains as glaring as ever—particularly when set against the “Predator Files” scandal.

As the United States publicly urges the Polisario Front to turn the page on 50 years of fruitless waiting in Tindouf, Washington, through its UN representative Mike Waltz, is reaffirming its unwavering support for Morocco’s autonomy plan. The diplomatic pressure comes amid gathering international momentum aimed at forcing the separatists and their backers to face reality.

At the UN, Algeria’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf delivered a performance as grandiose as it was futile. Historical falsehoods, denial of the democratic reality in the Sahara, glaring contradictions in the face of international realpolitik… Algiers is confirming its isolation and sinking ever deeper into a strategic dead end. An analysis of a speech running against the tide of history.

As speculation mounts and lists of potential candidates continue to circulate, the appointment of Morocco’s next head of government is governed by a strict constitutional framework and institutional timetable. Here is what comes next, what Article 47 actually provides and why sticking to the institutional facts is essential to clearing up public confusion.

The September 23 election has delivered a major political realignment, with the PAM victorious, the PJD back in force and the RNI sharply diminished. But overshadowing it all is an alarming level of abstention, with official turnout collapsing to 38%, reflecting young people’s enduring disaffection with the ballot box and a broader rejection of the political class. Here is why.

Aziz Akhannouch and the party that swept to power in 2021 have emerged from the legislative elections severely weakened. A record with little to show for it, deep social crises, popular unrest and a systematic blurring of public and private interests: the scale of the fall matches the scale of the promises that went unfulfilled. Just as the ballot box delivered yesterday’s triumph, it has now delivered the reckoning. The businessman’s fortune could do nothing to prevent it. A chapter is closing.