The Diplomat
Former Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos surprised Equatorial Guinea’s official television on Tuesday with a statement in which he assured that the elections held in Equatorial Guinea on Sunday 20 were held “in a free and democratic manner”.
The elections gave victory to the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea, of the country’s president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, with 99.7% of the votes. Obiang will thus continue in power for seven more years, after overthrowing his uncle, Francisco Macías, in a coup d’état in 1979, and will reach 50 years without leaving office.
The opposition, both in the interior and in exile, has described the elections as fraudulent. However, when asked in Fez by Guinean television about the election results, the former foreign minister in José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s first socialist government congratulated Obiang and expressed his conviction that “the Guinean people are happy”.
Furthermore, according to Moratinos, who was taking part in the Alliance of Civilisations Forum, not only Equatorial Guinea, but the entire African continent and the international community, are “satisfied” that the elections “have been held in a free, democratic manner that is favourable to the wishes of all Equatoguinean citizens”.
The president of the Partido del Progreso de Guinea Ecuatorial, Armengol Engonga, described Moratinos’ statements as “unprecedented” and “an insult to intelligence”, expressing his astonishment at the fact that he is a former Spanish foreign minister.
On her Twitter account, the PP’s foreign affairs spokeswoman in the Congress of Deputies, Valentina Martínez Ferro, picked up on Moratinos’ statements and asked whether the current foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, agrees with him.
Moratinos, who currently holds the post of Secretary General of the Alliance of Civilisations, travelled to Equatorial Guinea on numerous occasions after leaving the foreign ministry, and maintains a close relationship with the Obiang regime. Equatorial Guinea is expected to host the regional meeting in Africa of the Alliance of Civilisations, an organisation created within the framework of the United Nations, at the initiative of Rodríguez Zapatero’s government.
