The Spanish Government Accused of Lying to its People

The Spanish government put itself in great trouble when it said that it informed the Algerian authorities of a sudden change in its position on the Algerian issue.

This issue turned into a major issue in the country of Andalusia, as soon as Algeria denied any prior knowledge of what the Madrid government planned and implemented.

A sharp debate is taking place in the political and media circles in Spain aimed at ensuring that the government of their country lied to the Spanish people about informing the government of Pedro Sanchez, its Algerian counterpart, of changing its position from the opposite to the opposite in the issue of Western Sahara, which may be considered immoral political behaviour that would lead to its downfall.

In the press conference, he attended yesterday, the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, evaded a question about whether the Madrid government had informed its Algerian counterpart of a change in its position before announcing it. This is the debate that preoccupies public opinion on the Iberian Peninsula since the end of last week, when Algeria recalled its ambassador to Madrid, Said Moussa, in protest against the ill-considered Spanish move.

This is not the only issue that shakes the stability of Pedro Sanchez’s government in its relationship with Algeria because of its recent position. There is another issue also related to Sanchez’s failure to consult his partners in the government coalition, led by the Podemos party, and the rest of the other opposition parties, given that the Sahrawi issue has a peculiarity in Madrid, as it was a former colony which entails a historical responsibility.

The Spanish government, in a statement in which it revealed its new position on the Western Sahara issue, said that it had informed its Algerian counterpart in advance of this sudden change, but the response came quickly from the Algerian side, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that Madrid had informed it or discussed this file with it.

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, did not want to answer a question about the fact that Madrid informed Algeria before announcing its position. Despite the insistence of the journalists, the Spanish official avoided the answer, and responded in diplomatic language with a lot of evasions and manoeuvring: “Algeria is a strong, strategic and reliable partner. The contacts between Spain and Morocco are exclusively bilateral regarding the Western Sahara file”, justifying this ambiguity in the answer by what he said that “caution is required in diplomacy”.

The journalists’ questions remained, according to the Spanish newspaper, “La Razon”, without a clear answer, while the foreign minister of Madrid seemed to be in great confusion as he evaded his harassment with the media’s questions, to the extent that Portuguese journalists, who encountered the minister in the hallway, rushed (according to the same newspaper) to their Spanish counterparts asking them about the reason for the confusion that appeared on the Spanish official, and whether something serious has happened, before they were surprised that the issue is related to the credibility of Madrid’s claim that Algeria was informed in advance of this decision.

The scene of the Spanish diplomatic chief’s evasion in front of journalists reveals the state of embarrassment which the Spanish government has been facing since the end of last week, and confirms the evasion of the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs from answering the fact that Algeria was informed in advance, that his government lied to the Spanish people and that it is in a moral dilemma that may lead to its overthrow if political and media pressure continued on Pedro Sanchez and his government.

The Spaniards fear that Algeria will decide to activate the gas price card to put pressure on their country because of its last position, and then the problems will accumulate, and the people will rise against the situation, which may inevitably lead to the fall of the government, as it is the first to bear the responsibility for this mess.