Attacks on Morocco from sections of Spain’s political and media establishment, particularly the far right, have more to do with politics at home than with the state of relations between the two countries, researcher Badr Zaher El Azrak has said.
Speaking in the wake of the July migration events involving Sebta and Melilia, El Azrak argued that geography, trade, security and the movement of people had made the relationship too important to be viewed through short-term political disputes.
The Mohammedia University professor pointed to trade as one measure of that relationship.
Commerce between the two countries reached €12.22bn in the first half of 2026. Spanish exports stood at about €6.42bn, while imports from Morocco exceeded €5.8bn.
El Azrak also argued that the development of northern Morocco was “not to the liking” of some circles in Spain, pointing to the growing importance of Tanger Med and Nador West Med on the Mediterranean coast.
His remarks follow a statement from Rabat defending the relationship built with Madrid and taking aim at Spanish political and media circles it accused of using Morocco for domestic political purposes.
“The Kingdom of Morocco has sovereignly chosen, together with the Kingdom of Spain, to establish a relationship based on geographical good-neighbourliness, political understanding, economic partnership and security cooperation,” the statement said.
It said that approach had allowed both countries to strengthen areas of agreement while dealing with differences through dialogue.
Rabat pointed to Spain’s position as its leading economic partner and to cooperation between the two countries against terrorist and criminal networks.
Migration has become the more contentious part of the relationship following the events of July.
The statement maintained that cooperation in this area had “always been coordinated and effective," while acknowledging that what happened in July required an examination of the circumstances to prevent a recurrence.
Its sharper words were reserved for the political reaction in Spain.
Rabat said it regretted that “certain Spanish political and media circles persist in instrumentalising the Kingdom as part of a domestic agenda”.
It was “particularly distressing," the statement added, that historic Spanish parties with experience in government had entered a contest in which “political one-upmanship prevails over common sense."
For El Azrak, that political noise does not alter the interests underpinning the relationship. He said the two countries’ proximity, economic exchanges, security cooperation and management of migration had given ties a strategic character that went beyond Spain’s domestic political rivalries.
