The Straits of Tanger

Much is written of Spain’s ambition to return Gibraltar to the motherland and of the Gibraltarians’ resistance to this project. We know that it wouldn’t be in any way easy, as in the unlikely event of a, let us say, hostile take-over, the 32,000 Gibraltarians would either need to become somewhat unconvinced Spaniards, or be repatriated to the UK... or be sent to populate the Isla de Perejíl. Joking aside, the situation remains tense in the Spanish conservative world, if less so elsewhere. The right-wing La Razón for example speaks of ‘The Spanish hostages of Gibraltar’, meaning the 14,000 Spaniards who cross the frontier each day to work there. We read that ‘Since Felipe González opened la Verja (the gate) just thirteen days after arriving in La Moncloa in December 1982, Gibraltar has miraculously gone from being an unsustainable enclave for the British and without an economy worthy of that name to become a flourishing financial and online gaming centre with the third highest GDP per capita on the planet after Luxembourg and Qatar. Meanwhile, the neighbouring municipalities of the Campo de Gibraltar constitute, with 30,000 unemployed, one of the most jobless areas in the entire European Union. How is this possible?...’.  There are other, more moderate voices, which aim to ease tensions, since Gibraltar provides wealth for the surrounding Spanish municipalities. If the smuggling and the offshore tax issues could be resolved... Reuters tells us that ‘Gibraltar is encouraged by Spanish 'pragmatism' on post-Brexit ties’, saying ‘....“Sánchez has called for a different approach, one which puts a historic sovereignty question to one side and focuses on the opportunity we now have to create an area of shared prosperity on both sides of the border”...’.

But as Spain considers Gibraltar, perhaps with some help from Brussels together with the UK’s change of fortune following Brexit, There is another player to watch. Morocco.

It has long been said that Morocco would find much support internationally, if Gibraltar were to fall into Spanish hands, to claim for itself both Ceuta and Melilla (with a combined population of 160,000 souls).  Now it appears that Morocco is beginning to make its move.

Morocco has built a huge container port east from Tangiers at Ksar es-Sghir called Tanger-Med which, by last year, ‘...was upgraded to handle over 9 million containers and now ranks 18th in the world...’ (wiki). An article from Reuters last July says ‘Morocco's Tangier port to become Mediterranean's largest’.

A headline from El Español this weekend: ‘Morocco strangles the frontiers of Ceuta and Melilla’, by banning passage of all merchandise into the two enclaves. The news-source, another conservative like La Razón above, says ‘The Kingdom of Morocco has never recognized Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla, which it considers two "occupied cities."...’. The Morocco World News also treats the story here: ‘The presidents of Ceuta and Melilla have called Morocco’s decision to tighten restrictions on the borders of the two Spanish enclaves an attempt to “isolate and suffocate” their economies...’. Inevitably, Ceuta and Melilla are fighting back: ‘Ceuta and Melilla go on the offensive to respond forcefully to the pressure of Morocco’ here. The plan appears to be to attract new kinds of business (possibly at Gibraltar’s expense!).

The tug of war at the border crossings of both enclaves that has been seen on other occasions appears to have become more notable as Morocco has also recently claimed authority over all its Atlantic coastal waters as far as the Canary Isles, and suddenly, if that weren’t enough to worry about, Algeria has done the same thing in the Med, claiming as its waters the sea as far as the Balearic Island of Cabrera.