{"id":23146,"date":"2025-11-18T20:12:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T19:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/?p=23146"},"modified":"2025-11-18T20:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T19:12:07","slug":"spanish-congress-backs-neutral-stance-on-western-sahara-algiers-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/?p=23146","title":{"rendered":"Spanish Congress Backs Neutral Stance on Western Sahara, Algiers Ties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madrid, Spain<\/strong> \u2013 In a significant development reflecting the growing isolation of the ruling Socialist party within the Spanish parliament, the opposition Popular Party successfully passed a motion calling for a fundamental review of the official position on the Western Sahara issue and a return to the traditional policy of neutrality that Madrid has pursued for decades. The motion also advocates for strengthening political and diplomatic relations with Algeria.<\/p>\n

The Spanish Congress approved the motion despite opposition from Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist party, a move that constitutes a direct and explicit criticism of the foreign policy pursued by Foreign Minister Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares, particularly regarding the Western Sahara file and the management of relations with neighboring Maghreb countries.<\/p>\n

While the motion is not legally binding on the government, it carries a strong political message about the division within the Spanish political arena regarding the position on Western Sahara and the direction taken by Sanchez in 2022 by supporting Morocco’s so-called “autonomy plan.”<\/p>\n

The motion calls on the Sanchez government to restore its historical position based on “active neutrality” in the Western Sahara file, a position adopted by Madrid since its withdrawal from the region in 1975, which is based on non-alignment with any party in the conflict and support for UN efforts to reach a political solution. The proposal also demands support for the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara “MINURSO” in its tasks, which represents a return to the Spanish position supporting international legitimacy in the issue.<\/p>\n

During the parliamentary debate that preceded the vote, Deputy Jos\u00e9 Manuel Velasco of the Popular Party stressed that Spanish-Moroccan relations have always been characterized by complexity and repeated tension, while Algeria has proven to be a “reliable partner” that intersects with vital Spanish interests in several strategic areas. Velasco affirmed that Algeria represents a…<\/p>\n

More Algeria articles on DZWatch<\/a><\/p>\n

DZWatch – Your News Portal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madrid, Spain \u2013 In a significant development reflecting the growing isolation of the ruling Socialist party within the Spanish parliament, the opposition Popular Party successfully passed a motion calling for a fundamental review of the official position on the Western Sahara iss…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","iawp_total_views":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-algeria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23148,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23146\/revisions\/23148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}