Sanchez Did Not Respond To 19 Monitoring Initiatives Of His Government

The volume of questions and parliamentary initiatives that targeted the Spanish government, due to Pedro Sanchez’s shift in his country’s position on the Western Sahara issue, reveals the extent of the political suffering that Madrid has incurred due to the damage to its relations, especially economic ties with Algeria.

Since Algeria cut diplomatic bridges with Spain last March, and other unofficial decisions that affected trade exchanges, questions and parliamentary initiatives have not stopped, all targeting the government of Pedro Sanchez, but he remained elusive and evaded responding to those questions, refusing to provide answers requested by the opposition, which did not digest the sudden shift of their country’s position on an issue they were originally accused of causing.

According to statistics provided by Spanish media reports, including the “Vozpopuli” website, over the seven months following the outbreak of the crisis between Algeria and Madrid, 28 parliamentary initiatives and two other oral questions were put forward in a plenary session, which was directed to the Sanchez government.

However, the government has not provided accurate information on 19 of these parliamentary initiatives, and seven others that deal with them incompletely or ambiguously, while responding in detail to the remaining requirements.

Even Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares and Vice President Nadia Calvino were not accurate, the website says when they were asked in the plenary session of the Congress (Parliament) about the relationship with Algeria, except for questions related to the supply of gas, where the Sanchez government has always said; “Algeria will not give up on Its commitment to supplying Spain with gas, whatever the circumstances.”

The damage to Algerian-Spanish relations has led to a decrease in Spanish sales to Algeria to one per cent of its exports to the world, which made the trade balance starkly tilted in favour of Algeria, due to the stability of gas exports, which are framed by supply agreements before the current crisis, which is the only advantage that Madrid also lost in favour of Rome, which turned into the exclusive distributor of Algerian gas to the old continent.

But on the other hand, the most questions that the Sanchez government fails to answer every time are the ones that revolve around: the economic repercussions of the Algerian anger at Madrid, the contacts of the Sanchez government with Algeria to restore warmth to bilateral relations, as well as the reason for the decline in trade exchanges with Algeria in 2022, and what new steps are being taken to restore relations between the two countries? Are there any new steps? And the date of the return of the Algerian ambassador to Spain? What are the economic consequences of this measure on Spanish companies operating in Algeria?

As for the Sanchez government’s ready responses to these questions, they are often ambiguous, according to the site, such as: “The Government of Spain aspires to maintain and develop the best possible relations with Algeria and with all neighbouring countries, based on mutual respect and sovereign equality. It also employs the phrase: “We have relations with Algeria that are mutually beneficial”, and that “maintaining good economic and trade relations is in the interest of economic actors in both countries.”

Figures revealed by Spanish media reports indicate that since the ninth of June 2022, the day when Algeria suspended the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighborliness signed in 2002, Spain has lost more than 339 million euros in exports to Algeria, i.e. just over four million euros per day, and the Spanish government’s response to these damages is to ensure that the Economic and Commercial Office of Spain is “in constant contact” with the affected companies.