The representative of the Polisario Front in Spain, Abdullah Arabi indicated on Sunday that the vote of the Spanish Parliament for a proposal reaffirming the inalienable right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and denouncing the change of position of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Western Sahara, constitutes ‘a clear and categorical rejection’ of Madrid’s turnaround.
“Parliamentary groups, political parties, trade unions and civil society in Spain reject the position of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, which breaks with the traditional position” of Spanish government neutrality, Arabi said in a statement.
This rejection, he added, resulted in “the vote of the Spanish Parliament, which expressed its position clearly and categorically rejecting Sanchez’s decision and demanding to review it, because it does not serve the Sahrawi cause and does not reflect the broad movement of solidarity in Spain”.
The representative of the Polisario Front also deplores the fact that the position expressed by Sanchez is not in line with Spain’s policy towards the Sahrawi cause and people, and is in total contradiction with the traditional position of the Spanish State, recalling that “Madrid affirmed 45 years ago that its position is in conformity with the resolutions of the United Nations and international law”.
“Spain has a legal and political responsibility towards the Saharawi cause and the Saharawi people”, he noted, assuring that Madrid’s reversal caused “the reaction of parliamentary groups, political parties, trade unions and society civilians, who defend the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence”.
Mr Arabi notably insisted on the fact that the result of the vote in the Spanish Parliament was unanimous, with the exception of the socialist group to which Pedro Sanchez belongs.
On Thursday, Spanish MPs approved a non-legislative proposal submitted by three parliamentary blocs denouncing Sanchez’s “unilateral and illegal” change of position regarding the conflict in Western Sahara. A resolution that calls for a “correction” of this position and to support the United Nations resolutions to allow the Saharawi people to exercise their right to self-determination.
Underlining that the position of the Spanish Prime Minister serves “the expansionist interests of Morocco”, the representative of the Polisario Front expressed the “determination” of the Sahrawis to continue their struggle for the independence of the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
