The renewed warmth between Spain and Algeria follows a series of quiet reconciliatory moves. [Getty]
Algeria‘s interior minister, Brahim Merad, arrived in Spain on Monday, marking the highest-level visit between the two countries since Algiers severed political ties with Madrid nearly three years ago.
On 24 February, Merad met with his Spanish counterpart, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, in Madrid, where he reaffirmed Algeria‘s commitment to security cooperation with Spain and the fight against cross-border crime.
“The essential work Algeria has done to fight mafia trading in human lives has led to the dismantling of numerous criminal organisations at the source”, Grande-Marlaska said, praising Algiers’ efforts in shutting down smuggling networks ferrying migrants across the Mediterranean.
Since November, Algeria has dismantled over ten such operations.
Spain, for its part, is taking a hard line on smugglers. Prosecutors are pursuing an eight-year sentence for an Algerian accused of piloting an overcrowded boat from Oran to the Spanish coast in January, charging desperate migrants €7,000 each for the dangerous voyage.
Now, with intelligence-sharing on terrorism, drug trafficking and arms smuggling back on the table, Algiers seems finally ready to forgive Madrid for shifting position on the Western Sahara territory, a priority diplomatic file for the North African country.
Algeria-Spain’s diplomatic rift
The dispute between the two countries began in March 2022, when Spain shifted its stance on Western Sahara and endorsed Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed territory.
Morocco presented its autonomy plan for the territory in 2007, which is supposed to allow Saharawis to run their affairs “democratically“, while Morocco retains control over defence and foreign relations.
For its part, the UN has backed the plan but Algeria and the Polisario Front have so far rejected Rabat’s proposal.
The move enraged Algiers, a staunch backer of the Polisario Front, which has long pushed for a UN-backed self-determination referendum.
In retaliation, Algeria recalled its ambassador, froze political visits, and slashed Spanish imports by 93 percent.
The renewed warmth between Spain and Algeria follows a series of quiet reconciliatory moves.
In 2023, Algiers reinstated its ambassador to Madrid after a 19-month vacancy. Spanish and Algerian foreign ministers met on the sidelines of a G20 summit.
Yet while Spain is back in Algeria‘s good graces, France remains on the outs.
Algiers has refused to cooperate with Paris in deporting at least four Algerian nationals accused of inciting violence. French authorities said have attempted to expel ten times–unsuccessfully–an Algerian national before he reportedly went in a stabbing rampage in Mulhouse, France.
The refusal is just the latest strain in an already fraught relationship, rooted in France’s 132-year colonisation of Algeria and worsened by Paris’ recent recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Spain and France’s Western Sahara positions
Before 2022, Madrid has maintained a neutral policy towards its former colony: Western Sahara.
In March 2022, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez shifted policy and stated that Rabat’s autonomy plan is the most serious and credible basis for the resolution of the five-decade-long conflict.
Despite supporting Morocco’s plan, Madrid has continued to call for “a politically acceptable solution for both parties” regarding the Western Sahara issue, saying that it should come “within the framework of the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions.”
However, Paris’s position on the territory today is slightly different.
While Paris had initially nodded to Morocco’s plan when it was first presented to the UN in 2007, it had since avoided making waves on the matter—keen to keep Algeria, a key North African ally, on its side.
In July 2024, however, French President Emmanuel Macron, broke the balance, stating that “the present and future of Western Sahara lie within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty.”
In February, French minister of Culture Rachida Dati visited Laayoune, the main city in the territory, with her Moroccan counterpart Mehdi Bensaid, to inaugurate a French cultural center.
An Algerian foreign ministry statement posted on social media argued that the visit “reflects blatant disregard for international legality by a permanent member of the UN Security Council.”
Both Paris and Rabat haven’t addressed Algiers’ accusations yet.
