MADRID, 10 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and MEP of the Popular Party José Manuel García-Margallo has blamed this Friday the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, for the crisis with Algeria after the Executive’s change of position in relation to Western Sahara.
“The one who has made mistakes in the Maghreb because he has had two foreign ministers, whom he has appointed, has been Sánchez,” Margallo pointed out when asked in an interview on Antena 3, collected by Europa Press, about whether the head of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has made a mistake when measuring the consequences that the Government’s actions with respect to Morocco would bring.
Of course, he believes that Albares could have explained to Sánchez the consequences of the decision due to his career as deputy director general of Sub-Saharan Africa. However, he has insisted that the “subject of the sentence” is not the foreign minister, but the president.
Margallo has assured that the situation with the Maghreb countries “was seen coming” from the moment in which Sánchez did not make his first official visit to Morocco, as the previous heads of the Executive had done, and since Algeria began to suspend the operation of one of the two existing gas pipelines.
For this reason, the MEP agrees with the words of former president José María Aznar who called what happened with Algeria “ridiculous colossal”: “It is the greatest diplomatic disaster.” In addition, he has reproached Sánchez for having “thrown overboard” the “effort” made by his government to get along with both countries and for leaving a foreign policy of “dropping pants” in Morocco and “misunderstanding” with Algeria .
“Now we are going to have problems in terms of security from terrorism, immigration and economic matters,” he warned, while criticizing that the Government “does not tell the truth” about the fulfillment of contracts between Spanish and Algerian industry . Margallo explained that there is a supply contract until 2032, but that there is another that regulates the gas that is being negotiated, so the price “could go through the roof.” “It is the worst time to touch Algeria’s nose,” he added.
Margallo added that not even the “swerve” of Sahara is going to improve the situation of Ceuta and Melilla, autonomous cities that, in his opinion, are “worse than before”. However, he has stated that the situation with the Maghreb is going to be “difficult to explain”, as it is also, as he has pointed out, “identifying a success” in the foreign policy of the Sánchez government.
