More than a quarter of Spaniards foresee a potential conflict with Morocco

Perception of Conflict Risk and Impact on the Moroccan Economy

A new cycle of opinions in Spain highlights a striking fact: 66.2% of respondents admit to having considered their country’s involvement in a conflict in the coming years. Among them, 42.2% identify Morocco as a possible adversary, and nearly 28% consider a direct confrontation plausible. This feeling, fueled by anxiety-inducing political narratives and historical imaginaries, does not reflect an official assessment of the risk by Spanish authorities, but it weighs on economic expectations, the perceived security of investments, and talent mobility. For the Moroccan job market, this increase in negative perceptions takes place in a context where economic interdependence has never been stronger.

The Moroccan production fabric interacts daily with Iberian value chains, notably through Tanger Med, the automotive sector, agro-industry, offshoring, and tourism. When the population of a key partner begins to fear even an abstract escalation of tensions, companies review their compliance, transport, insurance policies, and recruitment of cross-border profiles. An HR manager in logistics in Nador recently reported a shift in client demands towards business continuity clauses and risk audits of the supply chain. This does not mean an immediate contraction in demand but an increased requirement for proof of operational resilience on the Moroccan side.

In Morocco, this situation calls for a pragmatic interpretation. International investors scrutinize infrastructure governance, the stability of social regulations, and the quality of training. Public authorities, engaged in modernization and employment programs, will have to articulate credible responses on crisis management while continuing long-term projects: boosting digital skills, greening professions, and enhancing the attractiveness of secondary regions. In this wake, announcements on public employment 2025 shed light on the sustainability of social efforts and the State’s ability to maintain course.

Let’s illustrate with a case: a Moroccan SME producing automotive parts based near Kenitra, integrated into a Spanish group, anticipates more volatile transit times. Its HR department adjusts schedules, strengthens maintenance teams to avoid unscheduled stops, and offers rapid crisis management training to workshop managers. Nothing exceptional in itself, but the repetition of these micro-adjustments shapes a new balance in employment policy, more preventive and evidence-oriented.

• 🔎 Strengthen geopolitical monitoring within management committees.
• 🧭 Update business continuity plans (BCP) including cross-border flows.
• 🛡️ Negotiate clauses covering political hazards with insurers.
• 👩‍🏫 Intensify resilience skills training (crisis communication, supply chain).
• 🤝 Consolidate Hispano-Moroccan partnerships on R&D to secure innovation.

Key Indicator 📊	2025 Value 🔢	Employment Effect in Morocco 💼	Recommended Response ✅
Spaniards considering a conflict	66.2%	Increase in resilience clauses	BCP certifications and audits 🔍
Spaniards perceiving Morocco as a potential adversary	42.2%	Increased scrutiny on country image	Proactive PR communication 📣
Spaniards considering hostilities with Morocco plausible	~28%	Revision of lead times and stocks	Logistics buffers and double sourcing 🚢

Under the surface, the debate on preparation for the 2030 World Cup becomes a full-scale test of Morocco’s ability to reassure and perform, including in local matters such as urban cleanliness, raised by concerns linked to sanitation issues before the 2030 World Cup. The final signal remains clear: Moroccan companies must turn external perceptions into a competitive advantage through proof.

Historical Imaginaries and Geopolitics of Perceptions in Spain

The evolution of opinions in Spain can only be understood by placing the figures within a memory framework. Ancient narratives – the shadow of al-Andalus, expulsions, the Mediterranean border, Ceuta and Melilla – still permeate certain media discourses. They feed a “reflex” where Morocco is perceived less as a modern state with converging interests and more as a symbolic “Other.” Recent surveys indicate that 55% of Spaniards cite Morocco as the primary threat, ahead of Russia. Topics related to international relations intertwine with migration news and port competitiveness, giving public conversation a high emotional intensity.

This dynamic has concrete HR effects. University collaborations or cross internships may suffer from stereotypes, reducing skill flows precisely when industrial chains need them. A Moroccan energy engineering company in Rabat reported a temporary drop in Spanish applications during media peaks. To overcome this inertia, it showcased green transition projects co-developed with Iberian laboratories and established binational welcome sessions for new recruits.

The rise of concerns related to security also fits within a global context of rearmament and war in Eastern Europe. Polls show a majority of respondents perceive a world “deteriorating,” with widespread pessimism. This backdrop distorts the reading of the Western Mediterranean, where cooperation is nevertheless daily: electrical interconnections, agricultural exchanges, tourism, and logistics. Far from confrontation narratives, operational reality pushes toward complementarity.

• 🧠 Deconstruct biases through academic exchange programs.
• 🌍 Highlight common successes (energy, transport, culture).
• 🗞️ Work with economic media to cover bilateral projects.
• 🏫 Launch binational masterclasses on geopolitics applied to professions.
• 🕊️ Promote economic diplomacy and HR success stories.

Perception Driver 🧭	Effect on Opinion ⚖️	HR Consequence 👥	Operational Response 🛠️
Historical memory	Overinterpretation of signals	Lower cross mobility	Immersion programs 🇲🇦🤝🇪🇸
Anxiety-inducing media coverage	Risk amplification	Candidate stress and employer brand	Factual brand content 📈
Migration tensions	Association security/neighborhood	Administrative fear	Work visa facilitation 🧾

The key is to bring the discussion from the symbolic register to tangible proofs of cooperation. This is precisely what Moroccan HR decision-makers seek when aligning their messages with measurable deliverables, highlighting site safety, compliance, and social performance.

Faced with perception volatility, the decisive tool remains consistent results on the ground, whether concerning port deadlines or engineering quality. It is this consistency that, in the long run, reshapes trust.

Risk Scenarios and Economic Continuity: Preparing the Moroccan Enterprise

Moroccan companies can convert opinion alert into advantage by structuring credible risk scenarios. Three lines of action stand out: securing logistics, cementing compliance, and investing in upskilling. A Tanger SME, “Safina Logistics,” has redefined its transport plans via alternative routes, strengthened digital traceability, and created a reactive “client communication” unit in case of rumors of incidents. This continuity engineering is not a luxury; it becomes a major commercial argument on the Atlantic and Mediterranean corridor.

The outlook for major projects – 2030 World Cup, Atlantic corridors, potential Strait tunnel relaunch – reinforces the need for a ready human capital. Recruitment in civil engineering, cybersecurity, industrial maintenance, and HSE professions will intensify. Candidates will find useful access pathways through sector-specific offer platforms, notably in construction, as evidenced by offers at JET Contractors. This acceleration also requires clear public policies, such as updating occupational frameworks and promoting apprenticeships.

The preparation of the global event involves more efficient urban projects and public services. Concrete, sometimes unexpected issues crystallize opinion and attractiveness, like debates around animal management and public space, mentioned by canine management and public space. For employers, these are as many operational execution signals reassuring partners sometimes subjected to anxiety-inducing narratives.

• 🧩 Develop 3 scenarios (optimistic, central, stress) with HR KPIs.
• ⛓️ Map supply chain dependencies.
• 🛰️ Digitize monitoring of flows and export compliance.
• 🧯 Train “crisis” teams in communication and negotiation.
• 🏗️ Accelerate recruitment in construction, energy, logistics.

Scenario 🔮	Estimated Probability 📐	Business Effect 💹	HR Measures 🧑‍💼
Optimistic (strengthened cooperation)	Medium to high	Acceleration of 2030 projects	Workload ramp-up of teams 🚀
Central (media noise, stable flows)	High	Increased compliance costs	Systematic training and BCP 📘
Stress (temporary logistical delays)	Low to medium	Extended deadlines	Backups and buffer stocks 📦

Organizations that decouple their decisions from media noise and equip themselves methodically gain an export bonus: transparent processes, trained talents, shortened “time-to-recovery.” This is the best insurance against alarm cycles.

Pragmatic Cooperation Morocco–Spain and New Employment Opportunities

Recent diplomacy has reminded us of a structural fact: Spanish competitiveness in Africa and the Mediterranean depends on a functional relationship with Morocco. Since Spanish support for the autonomy plan for the Sahara, an operational realignment has been observed on migration, energy, and investments. Meanwhile, in Spain, appetite for a European defense effort is growing, and more than half of respondents would agree to send troops to secure Ukraine, a sign of hardening expectations on security. This duality – institutional realism and public anxiety – creates a hybrid environment that Moroccan companies can navigate with agility.

Concretely, electrical and gas interconnections, green hydrogen projects, and port integration offer a foundation for qualified jobs. The flow of projects requires profiles in compliance, cross-border project management, and international purchasing. For job seekers, the 2030 ecosystem and Atlantic infrastructures are springboards, provided they aim for certifications and working languages (Spanish/English). Public sector recruitment trends also play a macro-social cushioning role, as reflected in the CNSS recruitment announcements, useful for stabilizing internal demand.

Moroccan companies can strengthen the cooperation narrative through proof: joint contracts, shared quality standards, co-branding of projects. For example, Safina Logistics has set up binational teams to respond to European tenders, reducing cultural friction and speeding up implementation. Moroccan engineering schools are also multiplying double degrees, improving regional employability.

• 🔗 Create Morocco–Spain task forces for quality certification.
• 🌱 Accelerate green hydrogen projects with mixed consortiums.
• 🧑‍💻 Develop export-compliance and international purchasing bootcamps.
• 🗂️ Co-finance academic chairs on industrial Mediterranean.
• 📣 Promote “flagship” projects in economic media.

Cooperation Project 🏗️	Skills Required 🧰	Employment Gains 💼	Signal for Partners 📣
Energy interconnections	Electrotechnics, HSE, data	Durable qualified positions	Predictability and green deal ♻️
Logistics Tanger Med	Supply chain, customs	Increase in middle management	Deadline reliability ⏱️
2030 and Construction	Civil engineering, BIM	Massive volume of jobs	Execution capacity 🧱

Ultimately, cooperation continues to offer opportunities, provided there is investment in employability and proof through projects. This is what anchors trust beyond media cycles.

Public Policy and HR: Moroccan Roadmap Facing Perceived Tensions

Employment policy can turn a perception of conflict into a professionalization springboard. Three principles guide action: transparency, upskilling, territorial anchoring. On the State side, clear labor market regulation, support for industrial SMEs, and public procurement oriented towards resilience stimulate a virtuous circle. Parapublic recruitments, such as those announced for 2025, complement the stabilization strategy, as shown in information on CNSS recruitments. On the employer side, professionalization of HR practices remains decisive to convince European clients.

Sectoral federations can play a catalytic role: updated occupational frameworks, mapping needs linked to 2030 projects, reconversion pathways. In construction, the abundance of projects makes directing candidates towards dedicated platforms relevant, such as opportunities in civil engineering and construction. Meanwhile, territorial communication must make visible investments in cleanliness, mobility, and public spaces upstream of the World Cup, topics often mentioned in analyses such as the quality of the urban environment, as they impact attractiveness and the local economy.

Within companies, the HR roadmap will benefit from structuring around a triptych: compliance (audits, certifications), skills (short training, work-study), employer brand (proofs, figures, client cases). Safina Logistics, for example, published an “HR resilience” report detailing team availability rates, average recovery time, and safety investments, a format appreciated by European clients.

• 📘 Standardize BCPs and obtain recognized labels.
• 🧑‍🏫 Launch micro-certifications in crisis management and trade compliance.
• 📊 Publish employability and workplace safety indicators.
• 🏫 Expand work-study programs with Spanish partners.
• 🛰️ Deploy real-time monitoring tools (IoT, traceability).

Public/Private Lever 🧩	Key Indicator 📈	Expected Effect on Employment 💼	Deadline ⏳
Resilient public procurement	Share of lots with BCP requirements	Professionalization of SMEs	Short term ✅
Certified training	Number of micro-credits issued	Upward mobility	Medium term 📅
Sectoral employer brand	Published client cases	Talent attraction	Continuous ♾️

The combination of stable public mechanisms and private operational excellence constitutes the best antidote to cycles of doubt. This is how a sustainable reputation is built.

Trust Indicators, Recruitment, and Economic Communication

Managing perceptions in international relations has become an HR issue. Corporate management must read opinion barometers as environmental variables and respond with facts: respected deadlines, certifications, site security, CSR quality. A dashboard, shared with Spanish partners, can include performance and collaboration metrics while narrating stories of joint projects. Sectors with high visibility – construction, tourism, agro-industry, energy – have an interest in documenting their progress regularly.

A “field” communication component can also address urban life issues, as these play on attractiveness and the service economy. Approaching 2030, municipalities and companies deploy improvement plans, as reflected in publications linked to the improvement of public spaces. Recruiters, meanwhile, will benefit from highlighting career prospects, salaries, and support for interregional mobility. This inspiring realism speaks to both recent graduates and experienced professionals.

For the construction sector, current offers at specialized players confirm investment traction. Candidates oriented towards execution will find openings via sector platforms such as opportunities in construction and civil engineering. On the public and parapublic side, visibility of hiring schedules, notably through CNSS recruitment announcements, stabilizes expectations and balances the active population between sectors.

• 📣 Tell success stories through quantified case studies.
• 🧭 Publish a quarterly performance “dashboard” shared with clients.
• 🤝 Deploy Morocco–Spain mobility programs for executives and technicians.
• 🧑‍💼 Co-organize job datings with Iberian partners.
• 🔐 Highlight workplace and compliance security guarantees.

Trust Indicator 🌟	Associated Measure 🧪	Key Message 🗝️	Effect on Recruitment 📥
Logistics punctuality	Rate of deadline compliance	Reliability above all	Attraction of clients 📦
Export compliance	Successful audits	Controlled risk management	Broader market access 🌐
CSR quality	Certifications and impacts	Values and performance	Talent engagement 💚

Ultimately, the winning strategy reconciles rigor and narrative: prove, explain, repeat. This is what transforms a period of perceived tensions into an opportunity trajectory.

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Why do some Spaniards see Morocco as a threat?

Polls show the interweaving of historical, media, and security factors. This cocktail fuels perceptions more than it reflects an official strategic assessment. The effective response is to shift the discussion towards proof of cooperation and economic performance.

What is the impact of these perceptions on employment in Morocco?

They strengthen clients’ and partners’ resilience requirements: business continuity, compliance, security. In the short term, this stimulates HR professionalization and creates needs for qualified profiles (supply chain, HSE, compliance, civil engineering).

How can Moroccan companies reassure their partners?

By institutionalizing BCPs, certifying their processes, publishing reliability indicators, and multiplying Morocco–Spain projects. Binational task forces and data-driven communication are particularly convincing.

Which sectors offer the most opportunities in 2025?

Construction and infrastructures related to 2030, logistics and ports, energy and interconnections, offshoring and digital services, agro-industry. Sector-specific offer platforms facilitate access to opportunities.

What role for Moroccan public policy?

Stabilize and clarify the rules of the game, accelerate certified training, support industrial SMEs through public procurement, and facilitate mobility pathways with Spain.