Canarian victims of terrorism call on the PP to rectify its rapprochement with the Polisario Front
The Canarian Association of Victims of Terrorism (Acavite) has criticised certain political overtures made by the Popular Party (PP) towards the Polisario Front, an organisation identified by the victims as responsible for attacks against Canarian interests in the 1970s and 1980s.
Acavite said in an official statement that it expects the PP to rectify the ‘unexpected turn’ taken with a meeting held in Gran Canaria between several MPs from the Spanish political party and members of the Polisario Front.
Acavite described the PP's overtures to Sahrawi representatives of the Polisario Front as ‘inconsistent and dysfunctional’, leaving the 300 Canarian victims of the attacks attributed by various sectors to the Polisario Front in the 1970s and 1980s ‘perpetually at the mercy of fate, abandoned and unprotected’.
The Canarian organisation of victims of terrorism also stressed that this position is incongruous given that the PP is part of the Canarian government led by Fernando Clavijo, leader of Coalición Canaria, as reported by the EFE news agency.
The Canarian victims of terrorism attributed to the Polisario Front are calling on the PP to show ‘greater consistency and to publicly explain the reasons for the change in strategy to perpetuate the whitewashing of Polisario leaders and their political sphere’.
Harmony between Spain and Morocco and rapprochement between the PP and the Polisario Front
All this after several national PP MPs met with representatives of the Polisario Front in Gran Canaria to support the Sahrawi cause. This comes at a time of greater isolation for the Polisario, which advocates a referendum on independence for the Sahrawi people, while its main opponent, Morocco, has gained the support of more than 100 countries for its plan for autonomy for Western Sahara, which has been considered by the United Nations (UN) Security Council in its latest resolution promoted by the United States and accepted by all members (with Russia and China abstaining) as the most serious and credible basis for reaching an agreement between the opposing parties with a view to achieving a consensus and a solution to the Sahrawi dispute, which has been going on for almost five decades since the end of the Spanish colonial era.
This comes at a time when Spanish diplomacy is in close harmony with Morocco, following the support given by Pedro Sánchez's socialist government to the Moroccan autonomy proposal as the most serious, credible and realistic solution to the Western Sahara problem. This initiative proposes broad autonomy for the territory with extensive self-government for the Sahrawis, leaving international and defence policy in the hands of the Moroccan state and respecting UN resolutions.
At the recent meeting in Gran Canaria, representatives of the Polisario Front were welcomed with expressions of support from five national MPs from the Popular Party. These MPs have asked the Spanish Socialist Executive to rectify its position on the issue of Western Sahara, contravening the current foreign policy direction of the Spanish State, which now enjoys a privileged and close relationship with a strategic ally such as the Kingdom of Morocco.
Carmelo Barrio, PP MP for Álava, commented in this vein that international law and UN resolutions on this issue are the ‘great ally’ of the Sahrawi people and regretted that the Spanish government has been accepting the ‘Moroccan thesis’ for several years. In this case, he demanded an explanation of the ‘obscure reasons’ behind the latest support given to Morocco regarding Western Sahara.
Acavite pointed out that he met with the same Canarian PP MPs in October at the Congress headquarters in Madrid, and they expressed their commitment to ‘not whitewash the attacks committed, and their absolute support for the approval and financing of the Canarian Law on Reparation, Aid and Support for Victims of Terrorism’.
It should be remembered that the Polisario Front has been accused of attacking Canarian citizens, such as the workers at the Fos Bucraa mines in the Sahara and the fishermen who worked in the waters of the Saharan fishing bank. These violent actions are still remembered by the Canarian Association of Victims of Terrorism.
In the same vein, it should also be remembered that the Polisario Front participated in the PP's national conference held in Madrid in July, which also caused great indignation among the Canarian Association of Victims of Terrorism, which described this presence as ‘a direct insult to the forgotten victims and those affected by the Polisario's attacks during the 1970s and 1980s’. The conference was attended by Abdullah Al-Arabi, representative of the Polisario Front in Spain, as confirmed by MP Carmelo Barrio himself in a post on social network X, stating: ‘At the 21st national conference of the Popular Party, we welcomed a very special guest, the representative of the Sahrawi people in Spain’.
Acavite considered this drift to be a ‘serious mistake and an embarrassment for the victims and their families’, stating that ‘ignoring their suffering and erasing their memory is a humiliating and unethical act, which must be corrected immediately, both at the level of the party in the Canary Islands and at the national level’.