The Rabat government has formalized Decree 2.26.265—a regulatory document obtained by Canarymaritime that aims to accelerate the timetable for completing the transaction agreed in December 2025 to take control of Boluda’s terminals, a deal also first reported by Canarymaritime.
The Moroccan government decree granting legal authorization to the state-owned subsidiary Marsa Maroc International Logistics to acquire 45% of the capital and voting rights of holding company Boluda Maritime Terminals (BMT) for €80 million does not mark the end of the transaction. The issue is not the weight on the board of directors, but rather the information that will pass through Moroccan government offices.
Brakes slammed on
The purchase is completely stalled in Madrid due to the Spanish government’s stringent national security and foreign investment reviews, which have been brought to the table by Gran Canaria President Antonio Morales. The commercial operation, which seeks to transfer control of the operator managing nine strategic terminals in the Archipelago and on the Iberian Peninsula, remains open and is caught up in a complex diplomatic, regulatory and political battle on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar.
The underlying issue is highly complex and coincides with something that only Canariasenpleno.com reported in the Canary Islands in September: the Spanish Army has tested a new configuration of its NH90 helicopters that significantly increases their range in the Canary Islands. The Army’s Air-Mobile Forces (FAMET) can now fly to the Canary Islands without having to make stopovers in Morocco. National defense is precisely what Antonio Morales cites when asking what sensitive information will pass through Boluda’s terminals in the Canary Islands with 45% of the company in the hands of the Moroccan state. Business associations linked to Spain’s 1978 political establishment in the Canary Islands support the sale.
Crossfire between Madrid, Rabat and Podemos
The agreement has placed naval group chairman Vicente Boluda at the center of an unrelenting media and ideological crossfire on both sides of the Atlantic. In Morocco, sectors of public opinion, analysts and local media have gone so far as to label the mainland Spanish businessman “anti-Moroccan” following the high-profile controversy over the geopolitical map displayed on promotional Real Madrid jerseys and his backing of the “We are all caballas” campaign in support of Ceuta. At the same time, and paradoxically, in Spain, political groups such as Podemos have harshly attacked the Valencia-based shipowner, accusing him of acting as a “complice of Rabat’s territorial and economic interests” in the region in order to promote the expansion of his own port and logistics businesses in North Africa.
The operational precedent in Tangier and Nador
This deep web of interests is built on an existing operational framework that goes far beyond a one-off contract. Boluda provides 24-hour tugboat services at Tanger Med 1 with a fleet dedicated exclusively to the facility, reinforced in March 2025 with the addition of the VB AZLA and VB AMSA tugboats to serve large-draft container ships. This presence is complemented by the 20-year award for maritime assistance at the Nador West Med megaport through the joint venture West Med Towage—formalized in Decree 2.25.725 and owned 51% by Boluda and 49% by Marsa Maroc, with an investment of €45 million—consolidating an institutional network structured around Tanger Med Dev Log, 35% owned by the Moroccan state, which is now seeking to extend its reach to Spanish infrastructure.
Critical infrastructure for the island supply chain
This dense network of transatlantic alliances reflects the critical importance of the infrastructure assets at stake in the Archipelago. The port terminals operated by Boluda in Las Palmas, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, La Palma, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote are not simply commercial cargo facilities; they are the vital and irreplaceable arteries through which the daily supply of food, consumer goods, machinery and fuel reaches the entire island population. Handing nearly half of the share capital and voting rights to Marsa Maroc International Logistics means granting a foreign power a position of direct influence over the governance of the Archipelago’s logistics network, given the shareholder structure of the North African company, in which the Moroccan state directly holds 25% and the public-sector Tanger Med complex holds 35%.
Alarm in Gran Canaria over sovereignty concerns
Institutional concerns raised in the Archipelago have ultimately shaped the central government’s agenda in Madrid. Gran Canaria Island Council President Antonio Morales has led outright opposition to the agreement, formally demanding that the Spanish government immediately halt the sale or apply the regulatory veto on grounds of sovereignty and the general interest. The island institution warns of the strategic vulnerability that would result if decisions on container handling rates, berth allocations, investment planning for cargo-handling equipment, or the maritime routes connecting the Canary Islands with the Iberian Peninsula and West Africa were made subject to or influenced by the geopolitical interests of the Kingdom of Morocco.
The Council of Ministers’ review
Faced with the negotiating haste of the business community and the intentions expressed in Rabat to finalize the alliance as part of its ‘Marsa 2030’ roadmap, Madrid has left the case in an administrative limbo. Spanish legislation governing foreign direct investment in strategic sectors requires the Council of Ministers’ explicit prior authorization for any transaction affecting the state’s critical infrastructure. However much Decree 2.26.265 seeks to establish the roadmap from the African side, the sale agreement signed by Boluda and Marsa Maroc has no legal validity in Spain until the central government issues a final favorable decision.
The outcome of the case will set a significant precedent for Spain’s foreign and industrial policy in the central Atlantic. Amid the Ceuta crisis, the final decision to be adopted by the Council of Ministers will not only determine the operating management model for container terminals at the Canary Islands’ ports, but will also define the exact boundary between the logic of private cross-border logistics integration and the constitutional obligation to safeguard the economic security and sovereignty of the island territories.
The article Morocco approves takeover of Boluda’s port terminals in the Canary Islands by decree was first published on canarymaritime.com.
