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Spain : Podemos tackles the import of Western Sahara products

Unidos Podimos, an extreme left party, has called the Spanish government to comply with the verdict issued by the European Court of Justice on the 21st of December 2016. The party wants to prevent the import of sand originating from the Sahara. Details.

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Unidos-Podemos, a left-wing electoral alliance  known formerly as Podemos-UI,  has opened the file of the Moroccan products imported from Western Sahara. The Spanish political party is again criticizing the import of tons of sands from the province which serve to embellish the Spanish beaches during the summer.

Inaki Bernal, the party’s senator called the Spanish government to justify the use of Sahrawi sands in strengthening Tauro beach located in Gran Canaria, local media reported. The Spanish MP believes that importing sand from the Sahara violates the verdict ruled by the European Court Justice on the 21st of December 2016 which excluded the Sahrawi products from the trade agreement signed between Morocco and the European Union. 

Podemos and its anti-Morocco policy

Bernal stressed in a question addressed to Mariano Rajoy’s cabinet that the import of sand originating from the Sahara «encourages the systematic exploitation» of the natural resources brought from the territory by «the Moroccan government».

Inspired by the Podemos’ point of view regarding this issue, the senator reiterated that Spain «has a historic responsibility towards the Sahrawi people» and to stress its political formation’s will to preserve «the international legality and protect Sahrawis».

However, the question raised by the Spanish senator is not as surprising as it sounds. In fact, it is part of an anti-Morocco policy conducted by the Podemos coalition and its members.  

For the record, representatives of Unidos-Podemos took part of a sit-in organized to protest against the arrival of a Moroccan ship carrying more than 35,000 tons of Sand to strengthen the Spanish beaches.

Last week a group of senators and deputies met with the representative of the Polisario in Spain, Khaira Bulahi to reply against the verdict pronounced by the court of Appeal in Sale in the Gdim Izig trial. The extreme left party, the 3rd political force in the Spanish lower house, is not only concerned with the question of the Sahara but also the one of the «Hirak» in the Rif.

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