Mohamed VI warned Parliament that cooperation with Spain cannot be subject to pressure or threats, including blackmail, as Felipe VI prepared to visit Ceuta and Melilla the following week. The planned visits to Ceuta on 13 October and Melilla on 14 October would be Felipe VI’s first official visits to either city since he became king in 2014.
It was the Moroccan king’s first public address since the dispute. He condemned what he called irresponsible statements from political and media circles in Spain, drawing a firm boundary around cooperation between the two countries.
The planned royal trip went unmentioned, but its timing put the speech at the centre of the bilateral agenda.
The speech carried extra weight because it opened the parliamentary session after Morocco’s recent elections. Mohamed VI used the occasion to address the dispute and mark the start of a new legislative period.
Spanish and Moroccan media reports point to the July migration crisis as the immediate background. Estimates of arrivals in Ceuta ranged from around 70,000 to more than 80,000. Official statistics have yet to confirm the final figure.
The king described the partnership with Spain as a sovereign choice and a voluntary commitment. He accused certain political and media circles of exploiting the events in Ceuta.
The speech also came as Morocco began forming its next government. Fátima Ezzahra Mansouri, the prime minister-designate, appears to be moving towards a centre-left coalition, political analysts cited by the Moroccan press say.
On Wednesday night, Mansouri met Nizar Baraka, secretary general of the nationalist Istiqlal Party. The party holds 65 deputies. The meeting opened a second round of negotiations with parliamentary parties.
The proposed coalition, bringing together PAM and Istiqlal alongside USFP and PPS, would control 207 of the 395 seats in parliament, nine more than the 198 needed for an absolute majority. That gives the coalition talks a workable parliamentary basis, though the numbers alone do not settle the negotiations.
Mansouri leads the Party of Authenticity and Modernity, known as PAM. The centrist, liberal party was the strongest force in the legislative election, winning 97 of the 395 seats contested and taking a central role in coalition talks.
Istiqlal won 65 seats. The USFP secured 26, and the PPS took 19.
That domestic process provides the wider setting for the king’s intervention. Rabat was opening talks over a new government as its political leadership set priorities for the new legislature.
For Spain, the immediate point is narrower. Morocco is publicly presenting the bilateral relationship as cooperation that cannot be dictated by pressure. Mohamed VI also argued that outdated legal provisions and court decisions constrain the existing structure and fail to reflect conditions on the ground, particularly the difficulties of returning unaccompanied minors.
An earlier report noted that Spain’s political agenda was already marked by sharp disputes. This statement concerns Morocco ties, not Spain’s domestic institutions.
Mohamed VI did not announce changes to Felipe VI’s visit or cooperation, and set out no new measure. Neither country confirmed a formal rupture in cooperation or new official sanctions.
