Spain had to reiterate its position on Western Sahara to appease Morocco after a member of the Spanish government from the radical left-wing Podemos party received a representative of the Polisario Front, giving him the title of " minister ".
Read also: Spain in "disagreement" with Algeria on the maritime border
“ Call from my Moroccan counterpart regarding the meeting between the Secretary of State for Social Affairs and a representative of the Polisario Front. I have clarified (...) that the position on Western Sahara has not changed, "Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Arancha Gonzalez said on his Twitter account on Sunday. " Spain does not recognize the SADR (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic), we support the efforts of the Secretary General of the United Nations to find a peaceful solution within the framework of Security Council resolutions ," she added.
Nacho Alvarez, member of Podemos and Secretary of State for Social Affairs, received Friday in Madrid Suilma Hay Enhamed Salem to whom he expressed his " solidarity with the Saharawi people " and whom he presented as " Sahrawi Minister of Social Affairs and the advancement of women ”on the Twitter account of its secretary of state. This message has since been deleted but remains visible in the cache of the Google search engine.
Joined in January in a coalition government with the socialists of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Podemos is favorable to the " right to the free determination of the Saharawi people " and to the establishment of " high-level diplomatic relations with the SADR " that the 'Spain does not recognize. Podemos and the socialists have divergences on several subjects. But the head of Podemos and vice-president of the government, Pablo Iglesias, tried to put an end to the controversy by assuring on public television Monday that the Spanish position on Western Sahara was " determined by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ".
Former Spanish colony, Western Sahara was the scene of a conflict until 1991 between Morocco, which annexed the territory in 1975, and the Polisario Front, which, supported by Algeria, claims the independence of this desert area of 266,000 km2 in a region rich in phosphates and bordered by fishy waters. A cease-fire signed in September 1991 under the aegis of the United Nations provided for a self-determination referendum within six months, constantly postponed since because of a dispute between Rabat and the Polisario on the composition of the electoral body and the status of the territory.
Read also: Maritime borders: the head of Spanish diplomacy in Rabat
