Sanchez Accuses The Main Opposition Party “PP” of Supporting Algeria

The political crisis inside Spain interacts interestingly, in a context that pushes the coalition government led by the Socialist Party and its president, Pedro Sanchez, towards more isolation, due to the aggravating crisis with Algeria following its recent decisions, most notably the suspension of the Friendship and Cooperation Treaty with Spain.

The political conflict between the Spanish Prime Minister and his political opponents, led by the “Popular Party”, took on new dimensions when Sanchez accused the most prominent political formation in the opposition, represented by the Popular Party, of “pressurizing Spain” in the crisis that his country is experiencing with Algeria.

Sanchez said in a speech in Malaga, south of the capital, Madrid: “If there is a third party putting pressure on Spain, while the European Union is defending Spain, this means that this third party supports the party that is pressurizing Spain”. Sanchez accused the opposition Popular Party of speaking ill of Spain at home and abroad.”

The statement of Sanchez comes after the accumulation of political pressure on him inside Spain, and the intensification of Algerian threats to activate the sanctions against Madrid, in response to the radical shift in the Spanish position on the Western Sahara issue, a position that led the relations between Algeria and Madrid in an advanced and worrying stage.

In this regard, the Secretary-General of the Spanish People’s Party, Cuca Gamarra, called on Algeria not to confuse Spain and the Spanish people on the one hand with the Spanish government, on the other hand, because the vast majority of the people and their political, media and economic elites hold the government responsible for the deterioration of bilateral relations with Algeria, as if she wanted to says do not hold Spain and its people accountable for the mistakes of the Sanchez government.

The Popular Party has registered in Congress a request for the appearance of Pedro Sánchez so that he gave “the appropriate explanations” about the crisis that has opened up with Algeria. This was explained on Friday, June 10, by the spokeswoman for the parliamentary group, Cuca Gamarra, who has denounced “the silence and lack of information” by the Government. “We cannot understand how even at this time the main opposition party has not received a call to inform us of what is happening,” Gamarra reproached.

The PP spokeswoman in the lower house and general secretary of the party denounced on Friday that “Mr Sánchez is not informed to anyone, he is not giving explanations and in the end, the consequences are paid by absolutely all of us.” Gamarra has remarked that the PP has presented this initiative before the “silences” of Sanchez and the “lack of information to which they are subjecting us all”, referring to the main opposition party and the rest of the parliamentary formations.

In addition, Gamarra has repeated the reflection that the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, made on Thursday, June 9: “One thing is the Government and another thing is the country and in that sense, we appeal to the Algerian Government to take it into account”. “Most of the political parties that represent the Spanish people in the General Courts have not participated in the Spanish government’s decision and its new strategy with Morocco and the Sahara,” Feijóo assured.

The popular party believes that the Spanish Government has resorted to the European Union as a “show your weakness” because the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, went to Brussels on Friday to discuss the diplomatic crisis with Algeria with the Vice President of the Commission and Commissioner responsible for EU trade policy, Valdis Dombrovskis.

“We cannot forget that he is responsible for the bad foreign policy that he is carrying out without the backing of Parliament,” she said. “The fact that I had to ask Europe for help shows his weakness. We hope that this policy from the European framework can help to resolve this! », she added.

Gamarra declared that “a State policy is a policy that is shared with the main opposition party and we cannot understand how this party is still hours haven’t received a single call about what is happening. That shows who carries out a State policy and who does not”.

The deterioration in Spanish foreign policy during the era of the current government, according to the Secretary-General of the Popular Party, is reflected in Sanchez’s decision to “break consensus and take unilateral decisions without referring to the institutions of the Spanish Kingdom, although the Spaniards are cooperating with Algeria and have excellent commercial relations with it”.

Amid the tension between Algeria and Madrid for nearly three months, media reports revealed Algeria’s intention to raise the prices of gas exported to Spain by 400% in the contracts concluded between the two countries, taking advantage of the inflation of the prices of this important energy substance in global markets since Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine last February, which raises the cost of gas exports to Spain to $10 billion after it was only about $3 billion.

The gas contracts concluded between Algeria and Spain include clauses that allow for a price review, especially in light of the current unprecedented prices. In this regard, media reports indicated that Sonatrach is about to issue an ultimatum to the Spanish companies, led by “Enagas”, to which it has gas supply contracts, due to the latter’s evasion of the Algerian demands calling for a price review to make it compatible with the current prices in the global market, according to the requirements of the concluded contracts.

According to observers, the Algerian party finds itself compelled to move to the last stage in the ongoing conflict with Spanish companies, which is the termination of contracts if the Spanish party continues neglecting the Algerian demands to review prices.

This is not the first time that Sonatrach has entered into a dispute with Spanish companies, as the Algerian company had previously fought a judicial dispute at the level of international arbitration, against the Spanish company, “Repsol” and “Naturgy, ex Gas Natural Fenosa”, and was able to oblige them to pay 1.7 billion euros, and about 514 million euros, as shares in favour of the Algerian company in the assets of the Spanish company “Gas Natural Fenosa” in 2016.