Seventy years ago the king Idris I of Libya visited Spain with his retinue from Paris. He was received at the palace Frank and was fascinated by Alhambra. “He dressed in Arabic; he has a trimmed beard; and wears glasses; He looked very tired,” the chronicler described the time when the procession crossed the Pyrenees. her nephew Mohamed El Senussi he keeps the memory of this journey through the adventures that his father told him. This week, Mohamed visited for the first time Madrid as crown prince in exile and determined to become the next king of a country turned into a taifa kingdom completely devastated by chaos and violence.

Mohamed, aged 61, campaigning. It was proposed to visit the main European capitals in search of support for a road map that offers the restoration of the monarchy as a way out of the nightmare that followed the 2011 civil war and the assassination of Muammar Gaddafi. “I was eight years old when the coup overthrew the king, but I remember how they came to my house and all the problems we had afterwards. We have bad memories and we have wounds, but I prefer to talk not about the past, but about the future,” Mohamed says in an interview. Independent. The prince arrived in Madrid specifically for the meeting. The venue was a hotel in the center of the capital.

He is the last member of the Senussi, a family that began in the 19th century as a movement associated with Sufism, an ascetic branch of Islam, that fought against Italian colonialism and ruled the country from its independence in 1951 until “military manu” a group of soldiers led by Colonel Gaddafi, who deprived them of their homes and sentenced them to live in a hut by the sea. Mohamed left Tripoli in 1989, accompanying his father for medical treatment, and set foot in the country for the last time a year later. Since then he has lived in London. “In 2011 [inicio de las revueltas tras el levantamiento en Túnez y Egipto] I believed that change was possible and did not think about returning, but after twelve years the politicians who took on this task have achieved nothing. One by one they failed.”

Tinderbox drenched in oil

The country where his family once ruled has now turned into a black hole on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, for which two governments, an association of militias and tribal leaders compete. “Libya is stuck in a cycle of constant transitions due to an inconsistent international approach, in which different countries are pulling the political process in opposite directions, and the status quo actors within Libya are content to remain the holders of power, even when their stubbornness contributes to the collapse of the Libyan economy” , — notes analyst Jason Park, author Libya and enduring global disorder (Libya and the ongoing global turmoil).

Oiled hell – it has the largest reserves of crude oil in Africa– where arms smuggling, human trafficking, terrorism, immigration tragedies and the worst conditions thrive. “There are too many problems today. The country is destroyed. There is human trafficking, but also drug use. This is especially serious among young people. Sometimes I cry and I feel very sorry for my people who need help and no one cares about them.”

Sometimes I cry and I feel very sorry for my people who need help and no one cares about them.

The Prince is exhaustive. “The Libyan people gave them a chance for 12 years, and today they do not see any fruits on earth. Life has not improved,” he replies. “Current leaders should serve the people, and not vice versa, as it has been so far. They only care about their pocket. Many Libyan politicians have chosen to stay in office because of the perks that come with it: travel, private jets, five-star hotels and overseas shopping. They do this without making sure that their own citizens can travel in good conditions.”

A reality that Mohamed considers sufficient to join the “let them all go”, which resonates in certain sectors of the country. “If you fail, you must leave,” he emphasizes. Country, “de facto” party between the East -Tripoli- and west -Benghazi- lives in political paralysis, which the heir to the throne seeks to break by resurrecting the past. “This is not the first time that we are facing a similar conflict in which all factions are fighting each other. Everyone wants to be a leader, and that’s really problematic given Libya’s tribal system. If a tribe imposes its leader, it will anger the enemy and serve as a shake-off of revenge that began 200 years ago. The predominance of one tribe over others will force them to monopolize power, as in the days of Gaddafi, ”he reflects.

Monarchy as a cure

An equation that Mohamed decides with his proposal to take power “if the people demand it”. Parliamentary and presidential elections, delayed from 2021, are due later this year, but few observers in the Libyan tinderbox see them as viable. Old acquaintances connected with the most dramatic episodes of recent history surfaced on the board: Saif to Islam, the son of Gaddafi, who led the international rehabilitation of the regime and its economic openness before the riots; and some of the children Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army, based in eastern Libya, which has been fighting the UN-backed government in Tripoli since 2014.

About al-Islam, captured in 2011 and liberated in 2017 by the militias of Zintan, a city in northwestern Libya, who held him under arrest, an arrest warrant from International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, but he managed to secure the protection of eastern tribes and maintain a low profile in order to run for president. “I think we need to stop talking about the past. Obviously, Gaddafi did bad things, but it’s time to seek unity. I don’t think that all this helps to build Libya, but only adds to the thirst for revenge and hatred,” Mohamed comments, not wanting to comment on the election competition, which he does not trust.

Libya is in chaos because of the intervention of other countries. Foreign troops must leave Libyan territory

“People who support Gaddafi have the right to do so, but without imposing this option with weapons. The same applies to those who defend the monarchy,” he notes. “But,” he adds, “it is not yet time for elections. No, as long as there is tension and an open struggle for money and power. The people are not ready. A presidential election would be a declaration of war. No one would accept poll results.

In the roadmap that Mohamed proposes, the first pillar will be the restoration of the monarchy and the constitution drawn up and approved in 1951. was voiced in all its regions – from Tripolitania to Cyrenaica – by monarchist movements and even by ministers of successive governments. With no tribal affiliation, Mohamed offers his figure as an agreed profile, with no ties or debts to settle. “We do not belong to any tribe and have always been guarantors of different ethnic groups.”

Against foreign interference

“Democracy cannot be exported. We have to do it our way, through a constitution that is still in effect, and through a constitutional monarchy,” he argues. “Although the Constitution is not the Bible or the Koran, it should be amended when there is a parliament,” he clarifies. The process conceived by the heir should be launched from a national dialogue under the auspices of the UN. “We are ready because the old structures exist: the parliament, the army and even the anthem.”

A return to the starting point, one that Gaddafi interrupted with a coup inspired by neighboring Egypt, and to which later decades of international ostracism were added, what happens, Mohamed warns, is towards the end of foreign intervention in the country, from Russia, with the deployment of mercenaries from the Wagner group – United Arab Emirates or Egypt. “Libya is in chaos because of the intervention of other countries. Today, 80 percent of the troops in Libya came from abroad. And there are countries that do not want a stable Libya because they use it among their population as an example to prevent any internal changes,” he says.

“Without naming names, all these troops must immediately leave the country,” he argues, also blaming the current drift on Libyan leaders who cling to their privileges. “In fact, the current one is a continuation of the Gaddafi regime. The main problem is that when you grow flowers, you will have flowers; when you grow poison, you will have poison. Change will come through education.”

start over

The prince curses the black gold that Livia cherishes, with the same reaction with which his uncle Idris perceived the discovery of the first deposits: “It is a pity that you did not find water. Water makes men work. Oil makes them dream.” “Sometimes I wish there was no oil. In any case, the future forces us to change energy sources,” admits the one in the success story Singapore inspiring model.

Mohamed reminisces about his trips to the desert to illustrate the journey that awaits his home country. “If a sandstorm breaks out in the middle of the desert, the first reaction is panic. Today, Libya is lost, and, as is the case in the desert, you need to get back on your path, back to where you started to succeed,” he says.

“I know that my country today is a jungle, but there is no other way out, and I have energy. We need to reset our recent history. On the current path, the country will eventually disappear. We must establish the rule of law, not hang the condemned, as in the days of Gaddafi, but punish those who do not obey. I hope these are the same people who fly and abide by the law when they travel abroad,” he says. Muhammad is ready for the mission: “God only knows if I will become king, but I want to serve my country. I don’t need anyone to invite me to go to Libya. When the time comes, I will pack my bags and go home.”

Europe can do more for Libya

“We are not asking the European countries to restore the constitutional monarchy, since it is up to the Libyans to decide,” warns Mohamed el-Senussi. “But we call on our European partners to help organize a genuine and meaningful national dialogue to consider this option, and not continue to consider only failed temporary assistance options that have led to vicious cycles of conflict and crises since 2011 instead of a workable solution. And he adds: “While we appreciate all the efforts of the European powers in recent years, we believe that more can be done to help Libya get out of its difficult situation”: