Boualem Sansal’s shocking proposal: “Spain should hand over Ceuta and Melilla”

The statements by the Moroccan Minister of Justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, regarding Ceuta and Melilla have provoked the expected reaction in Madrid. Morocco is asserting its historical and geographical rights over the two Spanish cities in Morocco. Spain responds that Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish and will remain so, all the more so as they form the borders of the European Union, whose barriers – stormed by 70,000 Moroccans at the end of July – are funded by Brussels. Less predictable is the article in which the Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal supports Morocco’s position. Background: Sansal had ended up in prison in Algeria (not only because of his friendship with Israel) but also for having supported Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara, which is also claimed by Algeria. “There are issues that people believe they can resolve by deciding not to raise them any more: history shows that these are generally the ones that return with the greatest force,” writes Sansal from Paris in Le360, a Moroccan news website. “I understand the Moroccan position and I share it.” Not out of hostility towards Spain, nor for the sake of those territorial disputes of which Mediterranean history is full, but for a simpler reason: “Europe’s borders must lie within Europe. Let everyone keep their own borders within their own country, and all will be well.”

Sansal recognises that their belonging to Spain is the result of a long history (dating back even to before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks). “But the antiquity of a situation is not enough to transform it into a natural order.” This is obviously neither a matter of driving out their inhabitants nor of erasing Spanish history. “Returning a territory to its geographical context need not mean expelling its history. But sovereignty can evolve without a civilisation disappearing.” Sansal’s argument is that Spain should return the two enclaves to Morocco, “which is useful when it comes to curbing migration, combating terrorism, securing the Mediterranean or guaranteeing certain supply chains”. A settlement regarding Ceuta and Melilla would have consequences extending beyond the two cities. “It would alter Europe’s relationship with North Africa. Europe has erected walls in Africa behind which it claims to protect itself from Africa. Then it asks Morocco to help it guard these walls. Where does Europe draw its border and, above all, where does it place its future? Europe’s borders must be within Europe. Morocco, for its part, is just fourteen kilometres away.”

Sansal is right on many points. Enclaves act as catalysts for attacks and migration-related blackmail; removing the territorial incentive reduces the incentive to use people as battering rams. The Mediterranean is better governed with a North African partner in control of its own coastline, not with outposts that force it to act as someone else’s police force. Those who refuse to address the issue find it returning, in a more violent form, with every crisis: the repressed geopolitical reality resurfaces. By contrast, Ceuta and Melilla were never part of Morocco: Melilla has been Castilian since 1497, Ceuta Iberian since 1415 and Spanish since the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668; the Kingdom of Morocco was established in 1956. One cannot ‘return’ what one has never possessed. The residents are Spanish and European; their wishes are not a mere detail to be dismissed in the name of geopolitics. And geography does not establish sovereignty: otherwise, Putin could lay claim to eastern Ukraine. Giving in to migratory pressure or military aggression teaches that migration flows are a weapon: it rewards extortion.

Even if Ceuta and Melilla were to become Moroccan, the walls would not disappear: they would simply be moved elsewhere. The problem lies in demographic pressure and governance, not the colour of the flag flying over the fence. And the precedent would be contagious: every enclave, coastal minority and historic outpost would become a bargaining chip. What about Gibraltar? And what about the French territory of Mayotte in the Comoros? And Las Palmas, an anomaly even larger than Melilla? Sansal is right to say that the status quo is fragile. He is wrong to suggest cession as a solution. Borders shift, but not every time one continent demands that another submit.