Pedro Sanchez Faces Parliamentary Accountability… And Cancels His Visit To Morocco

On Wednesday, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, will appear before the House of Representatives to be held accountable for the developments in the issue of the occupied Moroccan enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which have been the subject of a demand for restoration by the President of the Council of Representatives (the second chamber of Parliament), Al-Na’am Mayara, who is considered to be the fourth man in the Moroccan Makhzen regime.
Following the Spanish government’s decision to support the Moroccan regime’s plan for autonomy in Western Sahara last March, there were frequent reports that the rapprochement between Rabat and Madrid was a half-announced deal in which the Moroccan Makhzen regime would hand over the cities of Ceuta and Melilla to Spain in exchange for the latter’s support for the Moroccan occupation in Western Sahara.
The statements made by the Moroccan official, in which he insisted on his country’s right to reclaim the two occupied cities, caused great anger in Spain, which called for the intervention of the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who strongly criticized the statement made by the official in the Makhzen regime and reaffirmed that “the two cities are Spanish and will remain so”, in an unequal response that was read as containing many messages that no supporter can miss, to the effect that the next time the answer will be in the language of arms.
The Spanish government believes that the issue of Ceuta and Melilla has been resolved after Pedro Sanchez’s recent visit to Morocco and Madrid’s change of position on the Sahrawi issue, according to Spanish leaks that attributed the cover-up of the other part of the deal, which serves Madrid to avoid embarrassing the Makhzen regime in front of its people, so that it would not be accused of squandering parts of Moroccan soil.
This comes at a time when the wheels of the decision-making sources in Spain are in disarray with regard to the Moroccan regime, embodied in the fiery statements made by the Deputy Prime Minister in Madrid, Yolande Diaz, in which she described the Moroccan regime as “dictatorial” and promised to overthrow the position of Sanchez on the Sahrawi issue, which is biased towards the Makhzen regime, if she wins the general elections expected before the end of the year.
“I have a very clear position on Morocco and Western Sahara. Of course I am aware that we must take the situation seriously, but we must also know what Morocco is: it is a dictatorial regime,” she said in an interview with Spain’s Channel 6. If she wins the upcoming general elections, she will contradict the position of the current Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, on the issue of Western Sahara.
And although Madrid tried to play down the deputy prime minister’s statement on Morocco, Pilar Alegria, the official spokeswoman for the ruling Socialist Workers’ Party, said that what Diaz had said was a “personal position”, but it was made by an official of ministerial rank and with the status of a deputy. At the same time, the Prime Minister is confirming the existence of a split within the coalition that heads the government, just a few months before the next general election.