The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, defended again yesterday in Congress the new stage of “genuine cooperation” with Morocco, days after the Second Vice President, Yolanda Díaz, described the Alawi regime as a “dictatorship”. In the same debate, he avoided answering the PP who asked him whether he dismissed the previous foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, “at Morocco’s request”, as several media outlets indicated.
“Morocco is a friendly country, fundamental for the economic development of Spain, our gateway to Africa, an essential ally for our security and for orderly migration in our country and the European continent,” said Sánchez during his appearance before the plenary session of the Congress to report on the latest European Councils (at his own request) and on the High Level Meeting (RAN) with Morocco and the situation in Ukraine (in both cases, at the request of the Popular Group).
“More than ever in the history of our democracy, we have the opportunity to place relations between Spain and Morocco under the sign of a genuine and mutually beneficial cooperation, a relationship based on mutual respect, on the absence of unilateral actions and on the systematic fulfillment of agreements,” he continued.
This “new climate of cooperation”, he assured, has already borne fruit, such as “efficient” border management, the reestablishment of air and sea connections, the gradual reopening of customs in Melilla and the opening of a new one in Ceuta, and the control of migratory flows, which has allowed, he added, that the Atlantic route is the only one in which the arrival of irregular immigrants has decreased, with a decrease of 78% in the first quarter in Ceuta and Melilla and 63% in the Canary Islands, compared to the 300% increase that, for example, Italy has experienced.
For all these reasons, he warned, “if someone wanted to apply an alternative policy, they should explain to the Spaniards if it is compatible with the whole program of deepening a relationship that is strategic” and that is “a fundamental objective for Ceuta, for Melilla and also, logically, for the Canary Islands and for Andalusia”.
Sánchez pronounced these words days after the second vice-president and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, declared last Sunday in an interview that Morocco is “a dictatorship”, statements that have already been answered by PSOE and PP and to which yesterday joined the leader of IU and Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzon.
Regarding Ukraine, Sánchez insisted that Spain will continue helping this country militarily, because “the sending of military material is based on guaranteeing the legitimate right to defense”. These arms deliveries, he added, “have an effective impact on Ukraine, without risking an escalation and without diminishing our capabilities”.
He also defended his recent trip to China because “it’s not just about talking to allies.” “China needs to use its leverage to persuade Russia to end the war,” he continued. However, he warned, in reference to the plan proposed by Beijing, that “if we want a just and lasting peace we have to work on the peace plan of the attacked country”, because “we have to differentiate between the aggressor and the attacked and Spain is with the attacked, Ukraine”.
PP and Unidas Podemos
For her part, the secretary general of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, urged Sánchez to clarify (after the information published in this regard by the newspaper El Confidencial) if he dismissed the previous Foreign Minister “at the request of Morocco” and if “he has adopted more decisions in similar requests to the previous one”. She also asked him if “he changed the foreign policy of the Sahara without consulting neither the rest of the Government nor the rest of the groups for reasons unrelated to the general interests” and if “the information, apparently stolen from different cell phones, among them his own and those of several of his ministers, has something to do with all this”, in reference to the Pegasus case. Gamarra also alluded to the statements of Yolanda Díaz to ask Sánchez if “he is going to dismiss her” for that reason. Pedro Sánchez avoided answering these questions, in particular the one referring to González Laya, despite the fact that they were also raised by other parliamentary groups, such as Vox, Ciudadanos or Bildu.
“If everything was so idyllic, why didn’t you come immediately? If everything has been a success, why don’t we know the schedule for the opening of the commercial customs of Ceuta and Melilla?”, continued the PP leader. Likewise, and in reference to the RAN with Morocco, she asked the President of the Government if he considers it a “diplomatic success” that King Mohamed VI “calls him on the phone” instead of receiving him personally in Rabat. “Is that the new relationship with Morocco?” she added.
“Foreign policy is not a collection of trips, it is having interests and knowing how to defend them. And your reality, Mr. Sanchez, is that you have no state policy, because you marginalize the leader of the opposition”, she denounced. In this sense, Gamarra regretted that the President of the Government does not call the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to agree on the objectives of the Spanish Presidency of the EU. “If he can get along with Mrs. Meloni (the Italian Prime Minister, the ultra-right-wing Giorgia Meloni), surely he can get along even better with Mr. Feijóo. What I guarantee you is that he will get along much better with his successor than you will with us”, she concluded.
Regarding the Russian war, the PP leader assured that “we support aid to Ukraine, your partners do not”. She also described as “unacceptable” that Congress is “marginalized” in matters of foreign policy and defense and criticized the fact that Spain continues to buy gas from Russia. “With this money Putin can buy 40 new tanks,” she warned.
For his part, the co-spokesman of Unidas Podemos (minority partner of the coalition government), Javier Sánchez Serna, expressed his party’s “absolute rejection” of “Putin’s invasion, which violates international law”, but defended the opening of “ways of dialogue at a negotiating table” to end the conflict and criticized the “dependence on the United States” in this matter. “Breaking with these interests is key to the end of the war, which passes through an EU that regains its strategic autonomy and does not depend on NATO,” he added.
“We are concerned about the rights of the Ukrainian people, but also of the Palestinian people and the Saharawi people, who do not deserve that we turn our backs on them because of many pressures and blackmails”, affirmed Sánchez Serna, who urged to take advantage of the next Spanish Presidency of the EU to “establish our own security and defense of interests scheme”.
