The head of Spanish diplomacy, José Manuel Albares, has suspended late this Sunday the trip he had planned to make to Algiers this Monday.
On the express trip to the Algerian capital, the Foreign Minister aspired to turn the page on a crisis that had been dragging on for almost two years, after Algiers froze its relations with Spain due to its turn over Western Sahara.
The minister's team has not specified the reason for the suspension of the trip just a few hours after it occurred.
“Albares' official visit to Algiers is postponed for reasons of the Algerian agenda,” was the only official communication.
Other diplomatic sources explain that the Algerians have suspended Albares's audience with President Abadelmayid Tebún at the last minute, an appointment that did not appear in the official program, but that the Algerian press took for granted.
There is still no date for a next visit.
The crisis between Algeria and Spain dates back to March 18, 2022, when the Algerian authorities learned from the media that, after decades of neutrality, Spain supported Moroccan sovereignty under a regime of autonomy as the “most serious” solution. , realistic and credible” for the former Spanish colony.
The Spanish declaration pacified the relationship with Morocco, but unleashed an unprecedented crisis with Algiers, which supports the Polisario Front in the face of the Moroccan occupation.
“What Spain has carried out is unacceptable, ethically and historically,” said the Algerian president.
The anger of Algeria, which hosts Sahrawi refugee camps in its territory, had immediate consequences and the country withdrew its ambassador in Madrid the next day.
In June, when Pedro Sánchez ratified in Parliament his position regarding the Sahrawi dispute, the rest was unleashed.
The Algerian Government suspended the friendship treaty with Spain, signed in 2002, to then transcend the symbolic and freeze the import of Spanish goods.
The suspension of commercial relations meant a sharp drop in Spanish exports to the Maghreb country.
If in 2019, before the pandemic, Spain exported goods to Algeria worth 2,906 million, in 2022 this figure was reduced to just over a third: 1,010 million.
Air connections between both countries were also reduced to the point that there was only one weekly flight connecting Madrid and Algiers.
More information
José Manuel Albares, the minister who took the helm on the Sahara
Migration cooperation, one of the pillars in the bilateral relations of both countries, was not so affected.
Irregular emigration from the coasts of Algeria to Spain has maintained a downward trend, although the Algerian authorities paralyzed the returns of their nationals, which used to be done by ferry from Alicante and Almería.
The fear that the gas supply would be cut off never materialized, although Italy has become the preferred partner in this exchange.
Albares, who had not visited Algeria since September 2021, only planned to be there for a few hours.
The program did contemplate a meeting with his counterpart, Ahmed Attaf, the same one who, at the end of December, gave a hint of the rapprochement.
“What motivated us to give the green light to evaluate relations with Spain was Pedro Sánchez's speech before the UN [in September], there was a change of position [regarding support for the Moroccan proposal on Western Sahara],” he declared. Attaf.
The change was subtle, but the choice of words pleased Algeria, who interpreted that Spain was returning to the starting point.
In his speech, Sánchez defended for the Sahara “a mutually acceptable political solution within the framework of the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions of the Security Council” of the UN, without mentioning the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara. excolony
The thaw had already been brewing in recent months.
Last November, Algeria appointed Abdelfetah Daghmoum as its new ambassador in Madrid and thus once again had a head of mission from Spain.
Air connections have multiplied and there are already 25 weekly frequencies, which will be expanded to 28 in the coming days.
On January 14, Algiers reactivated Spanish imports of poultry products and, on February 5, those of red meat, although the trade blockade of other products still continues.
Albares' trip sought to get Algeria to completely lift the obstacles to trade with Spain, as the affected businessmen have been demanding for months.
“Our priority is for the market to normalize,” maintains Julio Lebrero, president of the Association of Companies Affected by the Algerian Crisis (AECA), a group of 26 companies and two associations with interests in the Maghreb country.
Lebrero, a manufacturer of public works machinery whose turnover fell by 90%, demands more information from the Government and a solution to the problem.
“The minister has defended the interests of Spanish companies at all times, and he will continue to do so until the full normalization of commercial operations and the reciprocity of connections,” diplomatic sources assure.
Now, full reconciliation will have to wait.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I am already a subscriber
_