<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Plurinational Parliamentary Group of Sumar, a minority partner in Pedro Sánchez's coalition government, has denounced the recent publication by the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) of a map of Morocco "that includes Western Sahara, a non-autonomous territory pending decolonization, among its geographical boundaries."</strong></h4> In a written parliamentary question filed on April 8, MPs Enrique Santiago and Juan Antonio Valero Morales (both from Izquierda Unida and members of Sumar) denounce that AEMET "has disseminated on its social media a map of Morocco that includes Western Sahara, a non-autonomous territory pending decolonization, the last one on the African continent, among its geographical boundaries." According to the two deputies, "the use of an erroneous map of Morocco that includes Western Sahara is not an isolated incident," as there have been several cases in recent years in which organizations and entities such as Enaire (the Spanish public company for the management of air navigation in Spain) and RTVE have used this type of map. In October 2023, Sumar reported that Televisión Española (TVE) had broadcast information about the 2030 World Cup accompanied by a map of Morocco that "showed Western Sahara included in Moroccan territory." In its response, Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) attributed this "regrettable error" to "the haste inherent in reporting and a lack of verification." In his parliamentary question on AEMET, Sumar recalled that “the Sahrawis have the right to independence and, in any case, to free self-determination through a referendum, as established in United Nations Resolution 2229 of 1966,” a right that “was reaffirmed in 1991 with the signing of the ceasefire in the first war of liberation, and has been promised for more than 50 years in successive peace treaties.” According to Sumar, “the government's position causes great harm to the Sahrawi people.” “Spain is failing to fulfill its obligations to the United Nations as the administering power of Western Sahara: it is its responsibility to guarantee decolonization and self-determination through a referendum,” it continued. Furthermore, it warned, “supporting the ‘Moroccan nature of the Sahara’ evades that responsibility, supports the Moroccan occupation, and legitimizes a dictatorship that seriously violates human rights.” For all these reasons, Sumar asks the Government "if it will force AEMET to rectify" and what measures it plans to take to "ensure that these 'errors' do not happen again." It also urges the Executive to explain the steps it plans to take to "advance support for self-determination through a referendum, as requested by the United Nations," and to assess the humanitarian situation in the former Spanish colony "following constant and recent reports of human rights violations in the occupied territory of Western Sahara and the denial of entry to Spanish journalists, members of parliament, and MEPs." <h5><strong>PP also asks questions</strong></h5> For its part, the People's Party (PP) Parliamentary Group has also asked the government about the "recent information" that reported the "inclusion of the territory of Western Sahara in certain AEMET temperature maps without indicating its territorial boundaries with Morocco." It has also asked the executive branch (in a parliamentary question filed on April 29) to clarify whether it has "rectified" these maps and whether the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (to which AEMET reports) has given the "appropriate orders" to "clearly delimit the territory of Western Sahara from the surrounding countries." <h5><strong>Response</strong></h5> In its response, issued on June 4 and published this week in the Official Gazette of the Cortes Generales, the Government states that AEMET has used a map from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the European Union's Earth Observation Programme, coordinated and managed by the European Commission and "in whose implementation the Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, European Union agencies, and Mercator Ocean collaborate." The Executive also recalls that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has met seven times with the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Staffan de Mistura, and that in these meetings he "has had the opportunity to reiterate Spain's commitment to supporting him in relaunching dialogue in the search for a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution within the framework of the United Nations Charter and the resolutions of the Security Council." "Human Rights are a guiding principle of the foreign policy of the Government of Spain," the response continues. "In all relations with all countries, both bilaterally and through the European Union in dialogue with those countries, this Government upholds the defense of Human Rights globally and in specific cases," it adds. In March 2022, Pedro Sánchez's government made the unexpected decision to endorse the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, the former Spanish colony occupied by Morocco since 1976, considering it "the most serious, credible, and realistic basis for resolving this dispute." This measure helped overcome the extremely serious diplomatic crisis with Morocco, but was rejected by the rest of the parliamentary spectrum, including Sumar and the other government partners. It has generated, among other consequences, numerous criticisms of the Spanish authorities for their apparent complicity with Rabat regarding human rights in Western Sahara. In these three years, the government has dodged all parliamentary questions related to the persecution of Sahrawi journalists and activists and the situation of asylum seekers from the former Spanish territory.
