Eduardo González
The decision of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to endorse the autonomy plan for Western Sahara has achieved the miracle of uniting all the parliamentary groups of all signs, which have unanimously rejected (with the exception of the PSOE) both the substance and the forms of this radical turn of Spanish foreign policy, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, was able to experience yesterday.
Albares appeared yesterday before the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee to explain the Government’s decision to abandon Spain’s traditional policy towards its former colony. The appearance coincided with the publication, for the first time and thanks to a leak to the newspaper El País, of the letter sent by Sánchez to King Mohammed VI announcing his decision.
In the text, the President of the Government defends “a new relationship, based on transparency and permanent communication, mutual respect and respect for the agreements signed by both parties and the abstention of any unilateral action, to live up to the importance of all that we share and to avoid future crises between our countries”. Likewise, Sanchez recognizes “the importance of the Western Sahara issue for Morocco and Morocco’s serious and credible efforts, within the framework of the United Nations, to find a mutually acceptable solution” and assures that “Spain considers the Moroccan proposal for autonomy presented in 2007 as the most serious, credible and realistic basis for the resolution of this dispute”.
The Prime Minister also expresses his desire to hold a meeting with the King “as soon as possible to renew and deepen the privileged relationship” between the two brotherly countries, “in a spirit of close consultation”, and to reiterate the “determination to face together the common challenges, especially the cooperation management of migratory flows in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, always acting in a spirit of full cooperation and restore full normality in the movement of people and goods, for the benefit of our peoples”. “All these actions will be carried out in order to guarantee the stability and territorial integrity of our two countries,” continues the letter, which concludes with the wish that the foreign ministers of both countries set “by common agreement a date for the visit of the Minister of European Affairs, European Union and Cooperation to Rabat, in order to start working to jointly build this new relationship.”
Precisely, Albares announced yesterday before the Congress that next April 1st he will make an official trip to Morocco to articulate this “new stage”, which will be developed “on a clear and ambitious roadmap, for the benefit of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Spain, of our stability and prosperity”. “My agenda includes the complete normalization of maritime connections between Morocco and Spain, the Strait Crossing operation and the reinforcement in a controlled manner of people and goods between the two countries,” he continued.
The minister also assured that Sánchez’s decision has not meant a turnaround in Spain’s traditional position, because previous governments, both PSOE and PP, also recognized “Morocco’s serious and credible efforts within the framework of the United Nations to find a solution.” “Spain has been a spectator of Western Sahara for too many years and today there is a great opportunity to take an active part in its resolution”, declared Albares, who did not make any allusion to Morocco’s possible counterparts for this change of course, such as the renunciation of its claims over Ceuta, Melilla and the territorial waters of the Canary Islands or the end of migratory pressures on the borders. Nor did he refer to Algeria’s indignation at this decision, which has included the recall of its ambassador for consultations and which could affect gas supplies at a particularly delicate moment due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
PP: “Government has achieved something unprecedented: the complete unanimity of all the groups”
After Albares’ intervention, all the parliamentary groups, both left and right, harshly criticized the Government’s decision, both in substance and in form. Valentina Martinez Ferro, of the PP, regretted the “obscurantism” of the Government on an issue “as vital” for Spain as the Western Sahara and stressed that, “after 47 years of consensus on one of the pillars of our foreign policy, the only one whose interest unites all groups in this House, the Government has achieved something unprecedented: the complete unanimity of all groups, except yours”. Likewise, he harshly criticized the fact that in Spain the existence of the letter of Sánchez to Mohamed VI has been known “by the Royal House of Morocco” and that, “in spite of having asked for it, we have known it through a leak to the press: shame is an understatement”. Martínez Ferro was also interested in Rabat’s counterparts and asked, in this sense, Albares to “fulfill his duty to inform when he receives the letter from Morocco” with its response to the Spanish Government.
For his part, Gerardo Pisarello, of Unidas Podemos (Pedro Sánchez’s government partner, together with the PSOE), warned that “it is not acceptable that the US Embassy should have found out about the letter before its government partners” – an accusation that Albares later rejected – and warned that Spain should not be trusted, when designing the future of the Saharawi people, on an “autocrat” like Mohamed VI, who, with his “leak” of the letter of Pedro Sanchez has not only “humiliated the Spanish state”, but has shown that the fulfillment of any agreement with him will always depend on his “circumstantial whims”. Pisarello also asked the minister, during his visit to Rabat on April 1, to remember that the majority of Spanish citizens are in favor of the independence of the Sahara (including “not a few socialists”) and warned him that “realpolitik, if it does not include values and principles, is reduced to cynicism”. In this regard, the Unidas Podemos spokesman in Congress, Pablo Echenique, announced yesterday that his party could present a bill during this week for Spain to return to its initial position in favor of the recognition of the referendum of self-determination for Western Sahara.
For his part, Pedro Sánchez himself was also challenged on this same issue during the session of control of the Executive held yesterday morning in the Congress, but managed to settle the problem by recalling that next Wednesday he will appear before the Lower House to explain his version. “We will have the opportunity on the 30th of this month to appear and talk about it at length”, he limited himself to reply. Afterwards, the head of the Executive moved to Ceuta and Melilla, where he declared that the agreement reached with Morocco lays “the foundations of a more solid and sincere relationship between both countries” and assured that “the Government has followed the position that has also been expressed by other very powerful nations of the European Union, such as France and Germany”.
