The Spanish capital, Madrid, witnessed yesterday, Saturday, massive demonstrations to denounce the position of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, on the issue of Western Sahara, and to express absolute solidarity with the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination, according to Sahrawi media sources.
More than 7,000 people demonstrated, according to the Saharawi Press Agency (SPA), in front of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and the European Union, to express their denunciation of the sudden change in the Spanish position on the conflict in the last colony on the African continent.
Under the slogan: “Sánchez, listen, Western Sahara is not sold,” and “Spain is involved and Morocco is responsible.” The participants, including a large audience of the Saharawi community, demanded the priority of reasonableness and responsibility on the part of the Spanish government, which, in the eyes of Spanish and European justice, is still the administrative power in a territory over which it has extended its control almost a century ago.
During the demonstration, Abdullah Arabi, the representative of the Polisario Front in Spain, said: “We condemn the change in the Spanish position that has taken place, and we have previously condemned the previous policies of successive Spanish governments, and we call on Mr. Pedro Sanchez to listen to the chants of the Spanish peoples who are always in solidarity with our cause and with international law.”
The Sahrawi diplomat also valued the “courageous and declared positions of the Spanish political class and civil society, which left the Spanish government alone without political or popular support after its last shameful stance.”
The Polisario Front and the Sahrawi Republic reiterated the call of Spain to assume its historical, legal and political responsibilities in Western Sahara, as the managing force of the region, and what this means in terms of responsibilities that must be paid for in order to solve the problem instead of deepening it.
A crowd of solidarity activists came from all over the Spanish territory, as well as representatives of parties, unions and civil society organizations, regardless of the participation of those belonging to the world of culture, including writer and filmmaker Carlos Bardem and artist Pedro Pastor.
