What’s really driving the Morocco-Germany rift
Morocco’s decision to suspend contact with Germany’s embassy in Rabat surprised many in Morocco and elsewhere, prompting a wide array of speculations as to why. With the move coming after the parliament of the state of Bremen had hoisted the flag of Polisario’s self-proclaimed republic, many were quick to point to Western Sahara as the main source of the tension between Morocco and Germany.
But the causes of the rift run deeper. If Western Sahara was
the immediate cause, Morocco would take similar measures with numerous
countries whose local or national politicians sympathize with and support
Polisario’s separatism aspirations.
One case in point is Spain. In a tweet last November, Pablo
Iglesias Turrion, Spain’s second deputy prime minister and secretary-general of
Unidas Podemos, supported the establishment of an independent Sahrawi state and
called on the UN to hold a referendum on self-determination. This begs the
question: why did Morocco not retaliate against Spain? If anything, such a move
from a deputy prime minister of Spain, Morocco’s largest economic partner,
should certainly be more irksome than a mid-level German official raising the
Polisario flag.
Moreover, many Spanish officials and politicians promote an
‘anti-Morocco’ discourse on a weekly basis. A notable section of the Spanish
civil society has also long offered political and financial support for the Polisario
Front. Despite this, Morocco has refrained from admonishing Spain, and was
measured in its response to Iglesias’s affront.
But Iglesias is hardly the only high-ranking foreign
official to have publicly endorsed Polisario’s “independent state.” In fact,
Morocco continuously disregards similar comments and statements from European
and Latin American officials and politicians, choosing instead to work behind
the scenes to grow support for its territorial integrity.
Transparency International
One reason Morocco suspended its collaboration with the
German embassy concerns Transparency International. The Berlin-based NGO
receives 63% of its funding from the German government and other Western
governments. A recent report it produced on Morocco paints an ominous picture
of the country’s public administration.
TI heavily criticizes Morocco’s actions in fighting the
COVID-19 pandemic, claiming government decisions caused rampant precariousness
and further exacerbated poverty and exclusion. Citing no credible sources, it
also accuses Morocco of using a mobile application, programmed to monitor the
spread of the virus, to spy on Moroccans.
In Rabat, meanwhile, there is a sense that while it preaches
objectivity and transparency, the NGO has often looked the other way when
Germany has featured in corruption or money-laundering and “dirty money”
schemes, or when large German corporations have been implicated in corruption
scandals overseas in efforts to obtain lucrative contracts. Such concern over
TI’s overt bias and its apparent fixation on Morocco were enough to arouse the
country’s wrath.
Corruption is a major obstacle impeding countries such as
Morocco from making a decisive leap towards sustained progress and prosperity.
Denying or dismissing the prevalence of such a scourge in Morocco would be
disingenuous.
However, I believe the timing of the TI report’s release,
its content and its persistence in summarily dismissing Morocco’s efforts to
stem the spread of COVID-19 caused the country’s defensive response.
Morocco has been commended for its effective COVID-19
response. Transparency International, however, chose to dismiss the country’s
success in outperforming many developed nations in securing millions of vaccine
doses. More to the point, Rabat’s efficient response to COVID-19 even prompted
the German media to – dismayingly – question the secrets behind such success.
Further incensing Rabat was TI’s questionable neglect to
mention countries performing far below Morocco on most measures of
transparency. More specifically, while it released a damaging report on
Morocco, TI did not report on Algeria’s dire socioeconomic situation, wobbling
pandemic response and rampant corruption.
Algeria is experiencing an economic and social decline
exacerbated by a disastrous handling of the pandemic. Algerian authorities have
notably taken advantage of COVID-19 to circumvent the Hirak movement seeking to
root out the corrupt military elite that has looted the country’s money for
more than six decades. Yet Berlin-based Transparency International specifically
targeted Morocco in North Africa.
Financial Action Task Force
Following TI’s report, Morocco was the subject of serious
accusations from the Financial Action Task Force. FATF has put Morocco in the
“gray list” for money laundering and terrorism funding. Heading this
institution is Marcus Pleyer, who represents Germany in the organization.
For many in Morocco, the assessment was an unacceptable
attack on the reputation of a country that features among the global leaders in
the fight against extremism and money laundering. It weakened foreign
investors’ confidence in Morocco, and this could not have come at a more
inauspicious time for a country vying to attract investments to revive its
economy. As soon as FATF published its report, many questioned its integrity
and the accuracy of its findings. Even more disturbing, the report refrained
from mentioning several countries – including Germany – notorious for being
money laundering havens. For example, Morocco ranked 72nd in Tax Justice
Network’s latest Tax Secrecy Index. Meanwhile, the US ranked as the world’s
second most secretive jurisdiction, followed by Switzerland (third), Luxembourg
(fourth) and Singapore (fifth). Germany ranked 14th and Algeria was 23rd.
Morocco performed significantly better than most Western and
MENA countries in terms of tax secrecy. Yet such tax havens did not appear on
the FATF report. The reason behind some Western countries’ absence from the
“gray list,” despite their grim record on the Tax Secrecy Index, is arguably
the fact that most of them are FATF members.
That Morocco has decided to suspend collaboration and
communication with the German embassy and its affiliated institutions suggests
displeasure with the Transparency International office in Rabat, which is
beholden to the Berlin-based office and receives substantial German government
funding.
Morocco clearly did not react to a state-level German
official’s position regarding the Sahara issue. If this were the case, Morocco
would not have suspended activities with German embassy-affiliated
institutions. The country would have released a statement that explicitly
asserted its position towards its territorial sovereignty, instead of being
content with labeling the incident “a deep misunderstanding with Germany on
fundamental questions to the Kingdom of Morocco.”
If the incident were only related to the Sahara issue,
Morocco would have expressed its dissatisfaction with Germany’s position in
December 2020, when the country criticized former US president Donald Trump’s
recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.
But the Transparency International and FATF reports were
also mere additions to an ongoing distrust between Morocco and Germany. They
came out around the same time a convicted terrorist released several videos
claiming he was tortured in a Moroccan jail. Germany has denied Morocco’s request
to extradite him, given his German nationality.
Morocco was also incensed by its exclusion from the Berlin
conference in January 2020 – despite its prominent role in hosting the Libyan
dialogue in 2015 and sponsoring the Skhirat Agreement. All of which means the
clouds were already gathering between Berlin and Rabat, and FATF’s and TI’s
reports were but the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The decision to suspend all collaboration with the German
embassy sends a clear message to Germany. With it, Morocco is urging the
European country to review its standpoint and policies towards Morocco’s
strategic interests, including its territorial integrity.
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