For many weeks, some discrete negotiations between some members of the Front Polisario leadership have taken place in the Canary Islands in order to determine the feasibility of leadership substitution within the Guerilla movement. Meeting in a smart villa of Lanzarote, many “historical” Front leaders, within an unseen alliance with the new faces of the movement, tempt to replace the ageing leader, considering that he is no longer “representative” of the current movement and that his ideas are “outdated”. Moreover, the fact that Mohammed Abdelaziz has been trying for almost one year to make his spouse Khadija Hamdi as a potential heir has tensed up a number of the Front officials, who see in this an affront of the “legitimate” successors. In fact, the heart of the problem will be in terms of the management of the relationship with Algiers, the pressures of the latter are becoming more and more hard to bear within a global context where the Moroccan autonomy proposal wins more and more support within the international community and where a Spanish or French about-turn is becoming less and less probable.
Indeed, some Front leaders, mainly among the youngest ones, will not be against the idea of exploring with Moroccans the possibilities to amend the autonomy plan proposed by Rabat and to add to it some improvements that will guarantee to the Front leadership executive positions in the future Sahrawi autonomous government. Algiers’ refusal of any attempt to improve the Moroccan autonomy plan will involve the Front leadership into a deep perplexity: how to get out of the deadlock?
