Francisco Garrido Peña is an epically untamed and dissident soul until Morocco is mentioned, and more than Morocco, Kings Mohamed VI and Hassan II. It happened 20 years ago when King Juan Carlos and Doña Sofía visited Ceuta and Melilla and he was the only deputy to question that displacement with the presentation of several parliamentary questions. And it happens now, when Crónica asks him what he would think if King Felipe VI were to come to the Autonomous City to give comfort to a people who are on the front line resisting the consequences of a hybrid attack launched by Morocco, according to the Spanish Police, without the Government seeming to be able or willing to defend them.
Things have changed so much that, in that autumn of 2007, with the ineffable Rodríguez Zapatero governing, the PSOE decided not to renew deputy Garrido on the lists just for daring to ask if the Executive was aware "of the negative repercussions" that the trip was going to have on relations with Morocco. And things have changed so much that he believes that in this international situation, this trip should not take place because it could lead to a confrontation with Morocco.
«The situation now is more sensitive. Now I am much more afraid of the negative consequences that a visit of this nature may have when what Morocco wants is to create tension. I do not believe that Morocco is interested or can aspire to occupy Ceuta and Melilla. Among other things, because it does not have the capacity to occupy them militarily and because economically it is very difficult for it to do without those centers... But an escalation can get out of hand and can lead to a military conflict.
Just hours after carrying out this analysis, the President of the Government, who until then has refused to schedule the visit that King Felipe promised to the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas - according to some analysts, because he is still a hostage of Paiporta syndrome - appears in Congress to announce that it will be good for the monarch to visit the Autonomous City in the coming weeks. It also reveals that the Moroccan ambassador, Karima Benyaich, was called for consultations after the incursion, on August 21, although hours later it was discovered that the ambassador was not there and that the meeting was with the charge d'affaires of the diplomatic delegation.
«The visit will have been agreed with Morocco, I hope. Even so, I believe that the public policies that the Ceuta population needs and demands depend on the Government, not the king, who, as we all know, reigns, but does not govern," says the professor after the president's change of opinion.
—And if the visit was not agreed upon, would it be irresponsible?
— Yes.
THE QUESTIONS THAT PUT HIM IN THE PILLOW
Francisco Garrido Peña has a Doctor in Philosophy of Law and is now a professor at the University of Jaén. He was confederal spokesman for the Greens and deputy of the Parliament of Andalusia and, when his party decided to go to the elections alongside the socialists, he was elected deputy in the Cortes Generales under the promise that some policies would be developed that never happened. He was the founder of the Parliamentary Association in Defense of Animals, and brought the Great Ape Project campaign to Congress, presenting a bill that did not prosper because his colleagues in the socialist group never approved it. The questions he posed to the government he supported about the visit of King Juan Carlos I to Ceuta ended up putting him in the pillory.
From his point of view these visits are "inappropriate." 20 years ago they were because they could affect "the coexistence between the two peoples." At that time, he explains, Morocco's alliance with the United States was not problematic because the Republicans who governed from Washington "followed a normalized pattern within the schemes of bipartisanship." It is worth remembering that 20 years ago, the Moroccan king showed his anger at the visit of the kings to the two autonomous cities whose ownership he claims by suspending bilateral relations and calling his ambassador to Rabat for 65 days, and he only calmed down after Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos ran to give him explanations with a letter from President Zapatero under his arm.
THE CRAZY SKIPPER
And it is also worth remembering that after the invasion of the island of Perejil by the Moroccans, the North American Administration, Republican like Donald Trump but light years away from its incendiary behavior, acted as an effective diplomatic mediator in resolving the conflict.
"Not now," the professor continues. «Now the North American boss is a crazy boss, he is a neo-fascist boss with whom any little game like the one we played with Perejil, that barbarity, is much more dangerous... Diplomatic relations must be scrupulously taken care of because it is a priority for the peace and stability of the area. Those who do not want peace or stability are Trump and the Republicans in the United States, who recognize, sponsor and encourage all conflicts that may develop in North Africa and Southern Europe," he says.
"Taking into account the speech that the king of Morocco is making, who is practically and empirically allied with the entire world reactionary arc, including Israel, it is best to relax rather than increase the tension, and the king, who does not have any type of competence to resolve the situation in Ceuta and whose figure has a symbolic object, could be used by the Alawite monarchy as a type of affront," he points out.
Professor Garrido Peña warns about the sensitivity of the situation, about the possibility that in a moment of lack of control an armed conflict could arise and remembers that the military has long designed a response for this extreme situation.
"I don't know if you know the Ballesta plan," he illustrates, "the Ballesta plan is an old plan designed by the High Command of the General Staff to defend Ceuta and Melilla and what it proposes in all scenarios is an advance of 100 kilometers into the interior of Morocco to defend them, given the impossibility of doing so from the El Príncipe neighborhood, and that would involve bombing and would have repercussions on international politics. Apart from the fact that it would be very good for the PP and Vox.
A BET ON REALPOLITIK
The position of the former Greens deputy, once embedded in the socialist lists, seems timid when compared to the arrests with which he has led his own life, standing up to dictatorships and avoiding limitations.
He founded and was general secretary of the Communist Youth of Andalusia, called the first gay demonstration in Madrid, was arrested by the East German police in Berlin for displaying propaganda in favor of dissident communists of the communist regime and was expelled from Cuba and declared persona non grata by the Castro regime for his support of Cuban dissidence. He deserted the Spanish army, was subjected to two courts-martial and left Spain to return posing as a Belgian journalist under whose identity he lived for 10 years, the time it took for his sentence to expire.
So it is difficult to understand the policy of appeasement that he proposes regarding the king of Morocco, a dictator who has made his diplomatic policy fluctuate out of interest until he aligns himself even with Israel and who ignores all the UN pronouncements on the Sahara, which was another of the battlefields of the former deputy's youth and on which he has changed his opinion until he aligns with that of the Government of Pedro Sánchez.
“Diplomacy,” he argues when asked about the need for the Spanish side to respond with dignity to the attack by the Alawite king, “sometimes has somewhat uncertain paths. It is not there to proclaim the truth or a lie but to achieve positive objectives: the effect of social coexistence, the effect of social progression, the progression of rights and all the items that can direct any type of progressive policy.
Regarding how surprising it is to compare his personal political adventures with his current realpolitik attitude towards Morocco, former deputy Garrido explains that we must not only look at the historical context but also at the biographical one.
