Morocco Targeted by France’s Call to Resist “Foreign Intervention”?

Amid an investigation into the “Qatargate” affair and its Moroccan component, France is taking up the file. In a letter to the EU’s diplomatic chief, Joseph Borel, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna called for an intervention to end “foreign interference” in the European Parliament. EFE reports.

“This is a file that we believe that actions can be taken and that we will follow with great vigilance”, for his part, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry told reporters at the conference yesterday. Asked about allegations that Morocco may have bribed current or former members of the European Parliament, the spokesman replied that France wanted “everything to be clarified”, stressing that these facts “would be particularly serious if proven”. .

Unlike France, Spain has yet to request intervention from Joseph Borrell. Last week, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pleaded for caution. “First we need to have all the data to decide what steps to take next” He pointed out Responding to a journalist’s question about Morocco’s involvement in corrupting MEPs.

French MEPs joined other MEPs in rejecting a proposal that the same sanctions imposed on representatives of Qatari interests should be applied to Moroccan lobbyists, including the former vice-president of the EP Greece Eva Kaili. The plan was rejected by 253 MEPs, with 238 against and 67 abstentions.

The French foreign minister traveled to Rabat on December 16, where he spoke with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita. On this occasion, the two parties talked about opening a new page in the relations between Rabat and Paris.