Podemos Ministers Skip Spain-Morocco Summit Amid Western Sahara Dispute

Pedro Sanchez and 10 ministers will travel to Rabat to participate in this high-level meeting between Spain and Morocco, José Manuel Albares, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, said on Wednesday. The ministers, members of Podemos and other left-wing parties, will not be present. These are Yolanda Díaz, the second deputy prime minister and head of the labor party; Ione Belarra, the Minister of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda, and secretary general of Podemos; Alberto Garzón, the Minister of Consumption and leader of the United Left, and Joan Subirats, the Minister of Universities and representative of the municipalities within the government.

Thus, only the ministers who are members of the Spanish Socialist Party will participate in this summit with Morocco, which will mark an important step in the new relationship between the two countries, opened in March after Pedro Sanchez sent a letter to Mohammed VI in which he expressed Spain’s support for Morocco’s autonomy plan for the Sahara. A change of position that has been strongly criticized by almost all Spanish political actors (partners and opposition) and caused tensions with Algeria, which has suspended the treaty of friendship, good neighborliness and cooperation with Spain.

Yolanda Díaz had denounced the unilateral nature of this decision, stressing that Sanchez had never informed them of this "incoherent" decision nor sought to discuss it with his party. Podemos, ERC and EH Bildu (the last two, parliamentary partners of the government) even presented a non-legislative proposal to the Congress of Deputies to denounce this "opacity" in the making of this decision. All groups, with the exception of the socialists (PSOE), Vox and Ciudadanos (abstention), voted in favor of this proposal, which clearly supported the self-determination of the Sahara and called for "a just, realistic, viable, sustainable and mutually acceptable political solution to the Sahara", within the framework of the United Nations.