Spain Calls Snap Election as Right-Wing Surge Threatens Sahara Policy Shift

"I am calling elections because of yesterday’s results. Some mayors will be replaced despite impeccable management, and many municipalities will now be led by the PP and Vox. The meaning of the vote conveys a message that goes beyond, and I personally assume the results," said Perdo Sanchez after the results.

These elections could see the arrival of the right wing in power. The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, affirmed a few months ago his intention to go back on Spain’s decision to recognize the Moroccanness of the Sahara. "The Sahara problem cannot be solved with a clandestine letter. Light must be shed on this issue. [...] The only thing that secrecy can create is more problems, more tensions, more uncertainty and less responsibility towards the Sahrawi people, towards Morocco and towards the United Nations," he had declared to the newspaper El Mundo.

"What I can assure the Moroccan Prime Minister is that I will not deceive him, and I will not deceive my country either... As for the UN resolutions, we can agree on many things," he stressed.

Feijóo has called for a overhaul of Spain’s foreign policy. Referring to the arrival in Spain of Brahim Ghali, leader of the Polisario Front, in April 2021, he insisted that "foreign policy cannot be left to chance. A government cannot illegally introduce a citizen into its territory".