The Sahrawi liberation movement criticizes Sánchez’s position and his support for the Moroccan autonomy plan
The Polisario Front, the political force that represents the Sahrawi people, has expressed its rejection of Western Sahara becoming a part of Morocco with a statute of autonomy, a solution that was defended this Wednesday by the Spanish government and the Moroccan as the most “realistic” to resolve the conflict that has been going on for decades. The president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, visited Morocco this Wednesday to meet with King Mohamed VI and reaffirm his commitment to the joint “road map” they signed in 2022 in Rabat. In a statement sent to EFE, the representative of the Polisario Front in Spain, Abdulah Arabi, has expressed, in response to the diplomatic visit, the historical demand of the movement: self-determination and independence for the Western Sahara.
🟡 Demonstration in Palma to ask Sánchez to “rectify” his position on the Sahara
🔴 The Polisario criticizes the PSOE and Sumar that the government pact does not include reversing the turn on the Sahara
The Sahrawi Liberation Front has accused Spain and Morocco of basing their bilateral relations on the “constant violations of human rights that Rabat perpetrates with impunity in the occupied territory of Western Sahara”, which, they point out, “seriously harms the position of the government of Spain”. In the press release issued, the Polisario regrets that “Spain is definitively renouncing the achievement of the relevant role that would correspond to it in the process of decolonization of the Western Sahara”, taking into account, they point out, its “administrative power condition” of the territory, which until 1976 was a Spanish colony.
The Polisario, adds the statement, considers that the good relationship between the two countries “cannot be built on the basis of the impediment to the effective exercise of the right to self-determination and independence of the people of Western Sahara.” “Once again, Sánchez has lost the opportunity to return the government of Spain to an official position aligned with International Law in relation to Western Sahara and the legitimate right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence.”
Autonomy, the “most realistic” way for Sánchez
In this Wednesday’s visit to Morocco, during the meeting with King Mohamed VI, Sánchez reiterated his support for the joint proposal signed between the two in 2022 in Rabat, in which the Spanish government considers the plan for the autonomy of Western Sahara within Morocco as the “most serious, realistic and credible” solution to the resolution of a conflict that has been going on for decades. For his part, King Mohamed VI thanked the Spanish President this Wednesday for Spain’s “constructive and important” stance on the Western Sahara conflict and reinforced the commitment to the joint “road map” that started the April 2022.
Sánchez’s turn with the background migration context
The Sahrawi territory, a former Spanish colony, was occupied by Morocco in 1975 and an armed struggle ensued that continued until 1991, when a ceasefire was agreed to reach a referendum agreement. This agreement never happened, due to discrepancies with the census, and the escalation of the political conflict led to a breakdown of the ceasefire in November 2020. In the context of the growing challenge of irregular migration at the border between Spain and Morocco in Ceuta and Melilla, the government of Pedro Sánchez brought about a rapprochement with the Kingdom of Morocco to improve relations and has gradually moved away from Western Sahara, which the Polisario Front has come to describe of “betrayal”. The delegate of the Polisario Front in Spain, Abdulah Arabi, claimed in January 2023 that Morocco was using immigration to pressure the Spanish government and that it “gave in to blackmail”.