Congress approves granting nationality to Sahrawis with the support of the PSOE and the abstention of the PP

Eduardo González The plenary session of the Congress approved this Thursday, with the support of the PSOE and the abstention of the People's Party (PP), the opinion of the Justice Committee on the proposed law to grant Spanish nationality to Sahrawis born under Spanish administration before 1976. The text had been promoted by the Sumar coalition, but the PSOE had voted against this initiative on two occasions in Congress (February 2023 and February 2025). To justify their position, the Socialists had resorted to mere legal technicalities: specifically, they rejected the legal-technical procedure of the Sumar proposal because they considered that the Polisario Front, a private entity not recognized by Morocco, should not be the one to certify the documentation necessary for nationality. Furthermore, they opposed granting nationality by naturalization. On June 30, Congress approved a report from the Justice Committee on the proposed law for the “granting of Spanish nationality to Sahrawis born under Spanish administration.” This outcome was made possible by a rapprochement between the Sumar and PSOE parties, which allowed the Socialists to stop blocking the proposal. In the vote, Junts abstained, and the PP (which until then had supported granting nationality to Sahrawis) and Vox voted against it. Days earlier, the proposal received a boost from an unexpected source: on June 24, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured the plenary session of the Lower House that he was “fully in favor of granting Spanish nationality to Sahrawis born under Spanish administration.” “There is no blockage, and I, as Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, am in favor of it,” he insisted. In Thursday’s debate, PP MP Pedro Muñoz again criticized the Pedro Sánchez government’s decision to end, “suspiciously and underhandedly,” the “active neutrality” maintained by “all democratic governments” regarding Western Sahara, which he said reflects a “capitulation to Morocco,” the most extreme example of which is “what has unfortunately been happening in Ceuta since last July.” He also stated that Sumar promoted this initiative, “in addition to out of conviction,” to “cleanse their conscience, for having preferred to keep the plush carpeting and the official car instead of the dignity of leaving a government that had abandoned the Sahrawi cause,” and he asked, “what has made the PSOE and the government change their position now regarding this legislative initiative?” In his address, Muñoz also asserted that the PP supports granting citizenship to Sahrawis, “but not by naturalization, rather through a two-year residency process, equating the system to that of Equatorial Guinea or Latin American countries,” because “naturalization is and should remain exceptional and granted only after individual case reviews” and because “given the current state of the law, you offer no guarantee that this regulation can be properly implemented.” Ultimately, the plenary session rejected the amendments presented by the PP, which chose to abstain from the overall vote. For his part, Artemi Rallo Lombarte, of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), accused the PP (People's Party) of "exploiting the Sahrawi people" to defend its party interests, but warned that "no one is going to spoil our celebration, no one." "The Congress of Deputies, the Spanish Parliament, the representatives of sovereignty, will recognize Spanish nationality for Sahrawis born during Spanish administration and their descendants," he declared. "Today is a historic day: 50 years after the decree of August 10, 1976, Sahrawis born under Spanish administration and their descendants will be able to apply for Spanish nationality," he emphasized. "Today we are restoring their right to Spanish nationality. This is not a gracious concession, nor is it a perverse stratagem to manipulate the electoral register. It is about restoring a right that was granted to them half a century ago and that they were never able to exercise," he continued. “The law will allow them to obtain Spanish nationality after two years of legal residence in Spain, putting them on equal footing with citizens of other sister communities: Latin Americans, Portuguese, Andorrans, Sephardim, Guineans, Filipinos, and not only that, they will also be able to obtain nationality by agreement of the Council of Ministers, taking into account the exceptional historical circumstances that demonstrate this fraternal bond between Spaniards and Sahrawis,” he added. The main proponent of the initiative, MP Teslem Andala Ubbi (better known as Tesh Sidi), of Sumar (a minority party in the coalition government), stated that, with the approval of this law, the National Identity Document (DNI) is being returned “to those Sahrawis who once had it and this State took it away, to a Sahrawi people who were not just a territory, they were the 53rd province of the Spanish State, and they were abandoned.” “The second most important aspect of the law is that we are equalizing rights: we are rectifying a historical injustice,” because, “until now, Sahrawis had to wait between 10, 14, or 24 years to be able to apply for Spanish nationality, even if they had a Spanish father and legal residency.” For this reason, Tesh Sidi harshly criticized the amendments and the PP's abstention. “An abstention is not enough for us. We need unanimous recognition of what many of you have used against the Socialist Party, and rightly so, pointing out its hypocrisy,” she stated. “No one can offer me the excuse today that this is an extraordinary regularization, or that this is an invention, or that this is by naturalization,” she warned. “Why didn't you present the amendment based on birthright? Because Sahrawis were Spanish by birth, and what you are presenting is an amendment so that Sahrawis can become Spanish after residing here for two years; that already happens, but it took us ten years,” she asserted, addressing the PP. “The Sahrawis who were born during the dictatorship were Spanish by origin, indeed, not by birth certificate,” she recalled.

Related Content

PP responds to Morocco, accusing it of being "responsible, by action or omission," for the Ceuta migrant influx

Felipe VI will receive the Letters of Credence from the ambassadors of Ghana, Chile, Venezuela, Nigeria, Thailand, and Palestine on Monday

King Felipe VI presides over 25th anniversary of 9/11 commemoration in Rota, alongside Robles and the US ambassador

Emilio Cassinello, former Spanish consul in New York, relives the tragedy of 9/11

Spain condemns Iranian attacks on a US base in Jordan