By Muriel Pilkington The local voice
Although Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba returned from Morocco on Monday evening assuring everyone that the border crisis at Melilla was settled, the actual crisis itself is largely unexplained. Morocco has sent at least five diplomatic notes in as many weeks complaining about Spanish police brutality at the border crossing, which culminated in an economic blockade ten days ago, that ended almost as soon as it began – for no apparent reason.
Activists on the Moroccan side were leaving nasty posters at the crossing portraying the border police, especially the women, as little more than Nazi concentration camp guards. Then that stopped. All this was going on on the Moroccan side of the border and it could be nothing more than King Mohamed IV stirring up trouble to divert attention from the Western Sahara – formerly the Spanish Sahara – which has been a thorn in the side of both countries for decades.
The Polisario independence fighters did their best to get rid of Spain in the 1960s and early 70s, while Morocco claimed the territory for itself. Matters were brought to a head in October 1975, when the International Court of Justice decided that neither Spain nor Morocco had any rights to the territory. Franco, who had fought so hard to hold on to Spanish Morocco in his younger days, was just about to sink into his final coma, when Morocco decided to settle the matter once and for all.
It launched the so-called Green March on November 6th, when some 350,000 unarmed Moroccans converged on Tarfaya in southern Morocco waiting for a signal from King Hassan II to cross into Spanish Sahara – just two weeks before Franco's death. With the old warrior out of the way, Spain gave in and signed the Madrid Agreement, which divided the territory between Morocco and Mauritania, in return for phosphate and fishing concessions. Spain and Morocco did not consult the Sahrawi population, who have been demanding independence ever since. Spain finds itself in the untenable position of trying not to offend the Sahrawis or the Moroccans.
On the Spanish side, some people suspect the Socialists have allowed the Melilla border problem to get out of hand to divert attention from more pressing matters – such as the internecine fight between the Socialist Party's organiser in Madrid, Tomas Gomez, and Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez, who has the support of Sr Zapatero, to run against Madrid premier Esperanza Aguirre in the next regional election. Few observers are willing to bet on this one because Gomez has a lot of support in Madrid – he achieved the impossible and put the party back together after Esperanza Aguirre smashed it to smithereens six years ago. However, Jimenez has the government's support, and it looks as if the primary could be a litmus test for the Socialists chances of winning the March 2012 general election. If Gomez wins, the pundits say, Zapatero will lose the general election. A Jimenez victory would mean a Zapatero victory in 2012.
However, anything could happen between now and then. Zapatero has to push the 2011 Budget through parliament in October, and the Socialist Party has to win the Catalan regional election in November, something that's beginning to look far from likely. A failure in either case could lead to the general election being brought forward. And even if the government survives, it still has to worry about the regional and local elections next May. There is every indication that the Socialists will take a beating in many areas – especially here in Andalucia.
So it will come as no surprise if Zapatero and his ministers suddenly find religion in the next few weeks, after years of trying to remove all vestiges of Christianity from public view. This is another part of the problem. Zapatero's the one who re-discovered the so-called Alliance of Civilizations - between the West and the Moslem countries - which he has been pushing ever since he took power. In fact, the idea has been floating around for decades, even in the Arab world.
For Zapatero this alliance means forbidding all Christian religious symbols in public places, while bending over backwards to avoid upsetting the Moslem community, who have no intention of giving up their “religious” symbols, which are not really religious but cultural expressions. Nowhere in the Koran does it say that women have to cover themselves up from head to toe – simply that they should dress modestly. More ominously, garments like the burka are increasingly being used to express a more radical Moslem stance.
The problem here is that Western countries are trying to be fair, rational, tolerant, etc. while the Moslem communities in those countries seem intent on not giving an inch. The Koran might not cover up women but it does say good Moslems should spread the word, by the sword if necessary. And that hasn't changed at all. Bin Laden said not too long ago that if we all convert to Islam there would be no problem. Let's hope that one sailed over Zapatero's head, or we'll all be off to the mosque before long.
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