Partners and opposition insist on asking Albares for explanations for the turn on the Sahara and support for Morocco

The minister refutes the "mantra" of the change of position and in turn makes the PP ugly with its "anti-Moroccan turn"

MADRID, 21 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Both the members of the legislature and the opposition have once again asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, for explanations for the "turn" given almost a year ago with respect to the Sahara and for the real reasons that have allowed a new relationship with Morocco and opened a diplomatic crisis with Algeria.

Almost a year after the letter from the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to Mohamed VI in which he indicated that the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara is "the most serious, credible and realistic basis" for resolving the conflict, the majority of Parliamentary groups have taken advantage of the appearance of the minister in the Foreign Affairs Committee of Congress to reproach the unilateral way in which he acted and to ask him to back down, as in fact he was ordered from the Lower House.

The spokeswoman for the PP, Valentina Martínez Ferro, has made ugly "the turn whose counterpart we still do not know today" as it is also unknown, she has said, "what happened to the president's mobile phone", in reference to the espionage he was subjected to with the Pegasus program like other members of the Executive.

The 'popular' deputy has questioned the positioning of the Moroccan side "in exchange for nothing" except for a new relationship whose mutual benefit has been called into question since, she has stressed, the opening of customs in Melilla, closed since 2018 by Morocco , and in Ceuta, where it never existed, it has not yet been fully produced but only with "a pilot test" and there is "a secret calendar" without a time horizon.

Likewise, it has drawn attention to the fact that Mohamed VI did not receive Sánchez during the recent High-Level Meeting in Rabat, as had always happened until now when the summit took place on Moroccan soil, something that the spokesperson for Citizens, Maria del Carmen Martinez Granados. "Relations with Morocco should not be so good when the king does not receive the president," she commented.

The Vox spokesman, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, has criticized the secrecy with which the Government has acted in everything related to the "sudden turn" regarding the Sahara and has also been interested in the reason behind "the submission to Morocco". . "Why do they accept humiliation after humiliation, why do they give up everything for nothing, what have we won?" Albares was asked.

From ERC, its spokesperson, Marta Rosique, has stressed that with regard to Morocco "there is not even the same position in the Government" and has stressed that if it has been decided not to speak with Rabat about what may disturb that means that it cannot be talk about Human Rights, the tragedy of Melilla or Pegasus, also reproaching the PSOE for not having supported the bill to grant citizenship to Sahrawis born before 1976.

For his part, the spokesperson for EH Bildu, Jon Iñarritu, has positively assessed that there is a good relationship with Morocco, but not "when the price to pay is the abandonment of the Saharawi people and looking the other way when tragedies occur on Spanish soil such as that of Melilla".

In this sense, he has also asked himself why "what does the Government owe" to Morocco and if there is "some type of blackmail or bribery", although he has been inclined to think that what they exert is their pressure, for example with the issue of immigration .

Albares has remained faithful to the Government's script in all these months, refuting the "mantra" that there has been a shift in the position regarding the Sahara and insisting that the Executive continues to defend the "centrality" of the UN and that any solution will come this way.

Likewise, he has taken the opportunity to claim the tangible results that the new stage in the relationship with Morocco is offering, beginning with the reduction in the arrivals of irregular immigrants or the new business possibilities that are now opening up for Spanish companies in the Alaouite kingdom.

Regarding the opening of customs in Melilla and Ceuta, he has assured that there is a calendar agreed with Morocco but whose dates cannot be revealed for security reasons to avoid "avalanches" and scenes from the past due to the so-called 'trade atypical'.

Albares has been particularly critical of the PP, which he has accused of intentionally seeking to "damage" the relationship with Morocco by having asked it to appear in Congress before the summit and recalled that both previous presidents and ministers have always recognized the priority of the relationship with Rabat.

In this sense, he has asked the PP spokesperson to abandon the "hoaxes" to which they usually resort in their arguments and that, if they really want foreign policy to be a State policy, "abandon that anti-Moroccan turn by which they are slipping" and that is contrary to what party leaders had previously maintained.

On the other hand, several of the spokespersons, in particular that of the PP, have called attention to the fact that the good relationship with Morocco has come at the cost of a crisis with Algeria. Martínez Ferro has warned that this has endangered the gas supply to Spain, something that Albares has denied.

What's more, the minister has accused the PP deputy of playing with the interests of Spain and Spanish companies with these statements that are not supported by reality, since the Algerian president himself guaranteed the supply and this has not been seen affected. "Algeria has always been and continues to be a reliable supplier," Albares said, reiterating once again the Government's will to have the best relations with this country.