Fórum Canario Saharaui criticises the proposal of the Polisario Front to grant licences to Canarian fishermen

The Fórum Canario Saharaui has issued an official statement in which it rejects the proposal of the Polisario Front to grant fishing licences to Canarian fishermen in connection with the expiry or termination of the fisheries agreement between the European Union (EU) and Morocco. It considers the proposal "ridiculous" and especially "bloody" for being made with the connivance of the representatives of those whom the Polisario attacked and assassinated during the 70s and 80s. 

The statement of the Fórum Canario Saharaui is reproduced below: 

The Fórum Canario Saharaui describes as ridiculous the Polisario proposal to grant licences to Canarian fishermen, on the eve of the expiry of the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement. 

In connection with the fisheries agreement between the European Union and Morocco, which expired on Monday 17 July, we describe as unacceptable, senseless and even ridiculous the proposal of the Polisario Front, in the recent meeting with representatives of the Platform for the Canarian Sea, as well as various Canarian fishermen's associations, to grant "private licences" of one year's duration to Canarian fishermen to be able to fish in that area. 

This is undoubtedly the Polisario's umpteenth "toast to the sun", although this time it is particularly shocking, as it has been done with the connivance of the representatives of those whom the Polisario attacked and murdered during its "black decade" between the 1970s and 1980s. A whole host of honest Canarian fishing workers betrayed once again, this time with the aggravating circumstance that the act comes from their own colleagues. 

While demonstrations in favour of the Polisario take place incessantly in the island institutions - especially in the Cabildo of Gran Canaria - the fishermen's funerals are a wasteland in local memory. Fallen in disgrace, in the greatest of collective oblivion, with the most absolute impunity of the victimizer, who in turn is protected and supported, in a grotesque paradox, by those who should most watch over his memory: his countrymen, his comrades, portrayed in this act of indignity and felony. 

In fact, we highlight how the Spanish Fishing Confederation has already warned of the impossibility of this false promise made for the sake of the gallery, stating categorically that "in the event of the possibility of negotiating private licences, there is a regulation that governs this concession". It is deliberately omitted that this chimera proposed by the Polisario and its illustrious French lawyer should have the approval of the Spanish government and the EU. An approval that would be utopian. But the Polisario leadership prefers to continue selling smoke and false hopes in order to grab headlines. 

In this regard, and in relation to the EU, we would like to point out that more and more countries are supporting the autonomy proposal that the Kingdom of Morocco has been offering since 2007 as the only credible and feasible solution to resolve this issue and avoid its eternalisation, with the consequent suffering that this entails for the people camped in the hell of Tindouf. 

The latest country to join this EU list was Italy a few days ago. In other words, practically half of the member states have joined this proposal, including the most important ones such as Germany, France, the Netherlands and, now, Italy. A massive endorsement by the EU countries of the Moroccan autonomy proposal, which we believe only continues the endorsement that year after year, in the same terms, the United Nations Security Council makes in its successive resolutions. 

While there is talk here of "swerves" and "sudden turns", deliberately using this issue as a domestic political weapon, with the aim of disorienting public opinion, which has no in-depth knowledge of the matter, logic tells us that if an increasing number of countries around the EU support the pro-autonomy stance proposed by Morocco, it is the EU itself that will end up making a move by joining the proposal as an entity. We understand that, at this rate of accessions, this could happen in the short to medium term.