Madrid, Sep 10 (EFE).-The Spanish Congress approved a law on Thursday allowing those born in Western Sahara before 1977 and their descendants to become Spanish citizens, a move most political parties and Sahrawi representatives who attended the debate called “historic.”
The law, which Sahrawi groups estimate could benefit between 80,000 and 120,000 people, aims to address the “neglect” Sahrawis believe the Spanish state has subjected them to since the signing of the Madrid Tripartite Agreement on November 14, 1975, under which Spain ceded administration of Western Sahara, then a Spanish province, to Morocco and Mauritania.
The bill was proposed by the left-wing group Sumar, a junior coalition partner of the Socialists in the government, and has been under consideration for months.
The vote passed with support of the coalition partners (left-wing and nationalist parties), the abstention of the conservative People’s Party (PP) and the Catalan separatists of Junts, and the opposition of the far-right Vox party.
All the lawmakers who supported the bill applauded at the end of the vote and looked toward the visitors’ gallery, where a group of Sahrawis celebrated.
Sumar Representative Tesh Sidi, who was born in a Sahrawi refugee camp and fostered as a child in Spain, took center stage in this debate, warning before the vote that she would not support “any abstention” that might be proposed: “An abstention or a ‘no’ vote means siding with Morocco,” she said.
With the law’s passage, Tesh Sidi noted that Spanish national ID cards are being returned to those Sahrawis who once held them “and had them taken away by this state.” This rectifies a “historic injustice,” she emphasized.
Coalition Partners Call for Reversal of Sánchez’s Support for Morocco’s Autonomy Plan for the Sahara
During the debate, both the PP and the coalition government’s partners criticized the Socialists for abandoning their traditional active neutrality on the Sahara issue in March 2022 and aligning themselves with Rabat by supporting its autonomy plan for the former Spanish colony.
The coalition partners called for a reversal of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s abrupt policy shift regarding the Sahara, lamenting that the Socialists had “betrayed” the hopes of the Sahrawi people.
The debate over this initiative comes amid the crisis in Ceuta, a Spanish city bordering Morocco, following the mass influx of migrants from that country on July 30 and 31 and the role Rabat may have played; some groups are wondering whether its approval will elicit any response from Morocco.
The Moroccan government has not officially commented on this law, although the Moroccan press is referring to “confusion” in Spain and a new source of tension.
The new law must now go to the Senate; since it will likely be amended, the Senate has an absolute majority held by the PP, it will have to return to Congress for final approval. EFE
alr/mcd
