Eduardo González
The representative of the Polisario Front in Spain, Abdulah Arabi, yesterday harshly criticized Sumar, the party of acting vice president Yolanda Díaz, for not including the recovery of Spain’s traditional position regarding Western Sahara in its government agreement with the PSOE.
“Yesterday (Tuesday) the signing of the agreement between the PSOE and Sumar took place to form a new coalition government of which Pedro Sánchez will be invested as president,” declared Arabi through a press release published on the Polisario Front website. .
“The refusal to include the issue of Western Sahara in the government agreement represents a manifest incoherence with respect to the positions maintained by both formations in relation to other international conflicts,” warned the Polisario leader. “Likewise, this is an omission contrary to the feelings of Spanish citizens, who have systematically demonstrated their rejection of the change in position – initially adopted by Pedro Sánchez -, contrary to International Law and with great implications for Spanish politics. “, both from an internal and external point of view,” he added, referring to Sánchez’s decision to support the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco for the former Spanish colony.
The government agreement occurred “practically two years after the radical turn adopted by Pedro Sánchez, which marked the breaking of a unanimous consensus of Spanish foreign policy by positioning itself in favor of the claims defended by Morocco in relation to Western Sahara.” , Arabi recalled in relation. “After what happened yesterday, it is no longer the exclusive responsibility of the current acting president,” warned the Polisario leader.
Sumar’s electoral program in the general elections on July 23 included the commitment to “quickly reverse the change in position adopted in 2022 with respect to Western Sahara” and to use “all channels of influence in the conflict to fully support the right to self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, within the United Nations, promoting the work of MINURSO, and both in regional instances and in bilateral relations with its Southern Neighborhood.” Likewise, it proposed the constitution of “a working commission on the historical responsibility of Spain with the Sahrawi people, which must prepare a report on the measures to apply the principles of truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition in relation to the current situation.” of the Sahrawi people and the historical responsibility of the Spanish State.”
“With the signing of the aforementioned agreement, Sumar has lost a historic opportunity with regard to Western Sahara and especially with regard to the prominent position that Spain should assume in the conclusion of the decolonization process of the territory” Arabi lamented. “Spain continues to be the administrative power” of the territory “despite repeated attempts to unilaterally disassociate itself from said responsibility,” he continued.
Given this situation, and as we have stated on numerous occasions, this Representation remains at the absolute disposal of all those political formations that wish to carry out initiatives that contribute to the effective exercise of the right to self-determination and independence of the people of Western Sahara,” he assured.
“However,” he warned, “the signatory political forces are still in a position to align themselves with scrupulous respect for International Law, the protection of Human Rights, the end of the plundering of natural resources in the territory of Western Sahara, and in definitively, in the defense of the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people.” “It is possible to find complementary formulas that guarantee respect, promotion and protection of the legitimate aspirations of the Sahrawi people,” he stated.
