Eric Ciotti, president of France’s Republicains, to visit Morocco amid dormant bilateral crisis

On Apr 27, 2023

Le Figaro reported this Wednesday that the French Republican Party’s president, who has yet to set a date for his visit to the Kingdom, will undertake an official trip to Morocco from May 3 to May 5.

“This visit confirms our political family’s ties to the friendships that bind our countries together. The right-wing political organization stated in a statement that “it is a continuation of a rich history between the Cherifian kingdom and the Gaullist family, marked by the historical link that brought together General de Gaulle and King Mohammed V, a companion of the Liberation.”

Eric Ciotti, who is of Lebanese descent, wants to seek “a relationship of brotherhood and responsibility” centered on the “same concern to ensure stability around the Mediterranean.”

“A concern for security and progress carried today with ambition by King Mohammed VI, a key interlocutor in Mediterranean issues,” the same source claimed.

The political formation states, “It is up to us to strengthen this relationship of the future as beneficial to France and Morocco as it is to Africa and Europe.”

Ciotti has requested a referendum on immigration to alter the French Constitution and France’s pledges to family reunion on Europe 1 on Wednesday.

Ciotti stated that in order to “modify our Constitution, our treaty obligations, including the European Court of Human Rights which authorizes family reunification with its Article 8,” “we need a referendum to change the framework.”

Ciotti enumerated his demands while pleading for a “revolution,” including “no more rights for illegal immigrants, more social benefits from the first day for regulars,” and “that we treat the asylum applications at the border, stop family reunification, and review the code of nationality.”

This journey takes place in the middle of a diplomatic and economic crisis between the two nations, which frequently makes their citizens’ lives—which are intertwined by a tight geographic, economic, and historical proximity—come into sharp focus.

Relations between Morocco and France had been silently suffering as a deep crisis persists, reflected on international standings on the Western Sahara, visa restrictions and space official visits.

A team from the French Senate, led by its president Gérard Larcher, was scheduled to travel to Rabat at the end of April, but that trip has been postponed until further notice.