The Diplomat
The Congress yesterday once again staged the absolute solitude of the Government and the PSOE on the Sahara issue, despite the curious maneuver of the Socialist Group to prevent the head of the Executive, Pedro Sanchez, from arriving today in Morocco with a new parliamentary defeat behind him.
Pedro Sanchez will travel today to Rabat, accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, in response to the invitation made to him days ago by the King of Morocco to stage the recomposition of bilateral relations. Mohamed VI will have the courtesy to invite Sanchez to share the Iftar, the dinner with which Muslims break the fast of Ramadan held throughout the day.
Prior to this trip, the plenary session of the Congress yesterday again made clear the rejection of all the parliamentary groups (except the PSOE and including the minority partners and the usual parliamentary supporters of Pedro Sanchez) to the decision of Sanchez to recognize the autonomy plan of Western Sahara. During the debate, the various groups asked the President of the Government to “rectify” and to communicate this to Mohamed VI during their meeting in Rabat.
Apart from this, the MPs debated on a non-legislative proposal (PNL, by its Spanish acronym) presented by Unidas Podemos, ERC and Bildu in whose preamble the decision of “a part of the Spanish Government” to modify “unilaterally” the Spanish policy towards its former colony, “contravening the resolutions of the United Nations and the International Law itself”, and “without having consulted or shared it with any of the political groups of the Congress of Deputies”, is criticized. Also, the resolution states that “the Congress reaffirms its support for the UN resolutions and the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), in the conviction that only dialogue, negotiation and agreement carried out in good faith and constructively, in accordance with international law, will help to achieve a fair, realistic, viable, lasting and acceptable by both parties to the political conflict in Western Sahara.
The difference between the two parts of the bill has served the PSOE not to stay once alone on this issue and announce its support for the proposal, arguing that what will be voted today is only the resolution part, whose requests considered compatible with the new turn of the Government on Western Sahara, as announced by the Socialist spokesman in the House, Hector Gomez.
In order to avoid this parliamentary twist of the PSOE, Aitor Esteban, of the PNV, presented an amendment so that the resolution would also include a criticism of the “radical and unilateral turn” of the Government and an “explicit defense of the right of self-determination of the Saharawi people”, because “if we say nothing about this, the Government will pass by without a word, and the PP, which we do not know if it complained about the substance or the forms, will say: ‘well, yes, of course we support it’, but it is not going to get involved”.
In these circumstances, everything depended on the three parties accepting the PNV amendment, but they finally rejected it, so the motion remained as proposed, thus ensuring the support of all political groups, including the PSOE. The only rejection came from Ciudadanos, which through its deputy Miguel Gutiérrez expressed his fear that the PNL is “a trap” to introduce the debate on self-determination in Spain, especially in Catalonia.
PP: “One part of the Government against another part of the Government”
For her part, Valentina Martinez (PP), highlighted the fact that they were “debating a PNL presented by one part of the Government against another part of the Government”, while Gerardo Pisarello, of Unidas Podemos (minority partner of the Government), affirmed that this text gave the PSOE “an opportunity to rectify and return to the historical position of neutrality” and defense of the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people.
Marta Rosique, of ERC, accused Sanchez of having “skipped 74 UN resolutions” and of having “left the United Nations in a bad role”, and Jon Iñarritu, of Bildu, described the decision of the Government as “a real botch job” and warned that it is not true that the “unilateral turn” of Sanchez is “a position of State”, because he is going to Rabat “defending a position which is not the one defended in the Chamber”. Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, of Vox, also denounced that Sánchez has taken this decision “against the will of the entire Chamber”.
For his part, Néstor Rego, representative of the BNG in Congress, has registered an initiative to invite the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Gali, to speak before the Chamber, in the same way as was done with the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski.
