After more than 19 months of vacancy, the post of Algerian ambassador to Spain is set to be filled once again. It is still too early to say whether this appointment will mark an end to the diplomatic crisis that has marred political and trade relations between the two countries for the past year and a half. However, the recent request from Algiers for approval to appoint a new state representative in Madrid is "a significant first step," pointed out one Spanish government source with some optimism.

According to the news website El Confidencial, the future ambassador will be the diplomat Abdelfattah Daghmoum, former ambassador to Guinea and former number two at the Madrid embassy.

Spain's decision to support Morocco's Western Sahara plan led Algeria to recall its ambassador to Spain, Said Moussi, "as a matter of urgency" in March 2022. Describing Rabat's proposal for an enhanced autonomy status as "the most serious, credible and realistic" one, Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sanchez of the Socialist Party, wanted to put an end to a long diplomatic crisis with Morocco. Even if it meant alienating Algeria, which supports the Polisario Front independence movement, hosts the Saharawi refugee camps and advocates a referendum on self-determination.

In the belief that the former colonial power's decision contributed "directly to the deterioration of the situation in Western Sahara and the region," Algiers was quick to take retaliatory measures, going so far as to suspend the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation in June 2022, which had been signed 20 years earlier with Madrid.

In practice, this decision has led to the blocking of Spanish exports and financial transactions between the two countries, reduced trade flows and higher prices for Algerian gas (transported only via a pipeline linked to Spain) the paralysis of repatriations of illegal migrants and the reduction of commercial flights between Madrid and Algiers from three a day to one a week.

Last year, Spanish exports to Algeria, with the exception of gas, plummeted by 46% to just over €1 billion, and by a further 90% in the first quarter of this year, peaking at €30 million, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism. Certain sectors, such as ceramics, paper and meat, have been particularly hard hit by trade restrictions.

Nevertheless, exports to Algeria have traditionally accounted for no more than 1% of Spain's total foreign trade. And the reduction in Algerian gas supplies has been offset by the diversification of supply sources, albeit at a high financial and environmental cost – with the United States becoming the kingdom's main supplier, via LNG tankers.

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