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In the European Parliament, the new 2024-2029 legislature officially began on July 16. However, the Polisario Front has yet to establish its traditional friendship group within the European hemicycle.
The Front accuses Spain's PSOE, the party chaired by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, of blocking the renewal of this group. «Indeed, the creation of this group requires the approval of three groups of MEPs. The Greens and The Left have already given their consent, but the social-democratic bloc has withdrawn its support, thus condemning the initiative to failure for the first time», reported an Iberian media outlet.
The support group for the Polisario «has existed in the European Parliament for more than 20 years (…) The socialist group, due to the membership of the majority of its members in the PSOE, has not supported the creation of this intergroup», lamented the Polisario's representative to the European Union, Omar Mansur.
The Spanish socialists offer a different perspective. «Sources from the PSOE have categorically rejected the pressures exerted by the party against the creation of this intergroup», reported EFE. «A large part of the Spanish delegation within the social-democratic group voted in favor of its creation. Each MEP can freely choose their vote, and the sensibilities of the Spanish MEPs differ from those of other countries», explained the same sources.
While awaiting the revival of this initiative, the Polisario organized a conference on December 9 and 10 at the European Parliament headquarters. The event was dedicated to the October 4 rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which excluded Western Sahara from the fishing and agricultural agreements signed in 2019 between Morocco and the EU. Spanish and Portuguese MEPs participated in the conference.
