• Sánchez Congress defends its turn on the Sahara and its relationship with NATO and clashes with its allies and the opposition

  • Sahara The pact that "betrays" a million Saharawis: "We prefer not to have a country to be Moroccans"

Welcome aboard the Peaceful Summers.

Fasten your seat belts, we are going to set sail...

Or are we?

This year the doubts about whether the Saharawi children from the Tindouf

refugee camps

could be welcomed in

Spain

lasted until the end of July.

The diplomatic conflict between

Madrid

and

Algiers made

it almost impossible for these 2,200 minors to spend an August in peace, and

cool.

Yes, despite the 40-degree ambient temperature, children say they "are cold."

"And they wear a jacket," explain their Spanish parents, marked this year by Pedro Sánchez's turn in the Saharawi question, a slab for the refugees in Tindouf and a blow also for those who feel brotherly.

Since 1979, thousands of families in Spain have welcomed some of the Saharawi girls and boys who spend the rest of the year in the desert, on the border between

Morocco, Algeria

and

Mauritania

.

"We are not going to vote for him anymore," proclaim many in that host community where there are numerous those related to the PSOE.

They point more to Pedro Sánchez than to the party.

“In many demonstrations, I can tell you that there were socialist councillors”, emphasizes

Tesh Sidi

, of Saharawi origin and now also Spanish.

And

Virginia Fernández Garcia-Abad,

in charge of the program in Madrid, concludes: "All of us, regardless of our political color, have felt betrayed."

Relations have not improved since the Polisario Front broke off dialogue with the government in March.

Pedro Sánchez acknowledged in a letter to

Mohamed VI

that his solution for the Sahara -recognizing it as part of Morocco without a referendum- was the most credible: «Spain succumbs to

Rabat's blackmail.

The position that does not correspond to her political and legal responsibility and that will condition her role in resolving the conflict », pointed out the Polisario.

Spain abandoned the historical position of support for the

UN

resolutions , which recognize the right to self-determination of Western Sahara, and opted for Morocco's autonomy plan, which implies accepting the de facto sovereignty of Rabat over a territory that it occupied by forcing the hasty departure from Spain, in 1975, with

Franco

dying.

The diplomatic turn is not only the subject of political dispute, the Saharawis in reception also have Sánchez in their mouths.

"My children speak to each other in an Arabic dialect and from time to time you hear them name Pedro Sánchez," says Virginia.

“They are small, but they have a deep understanding of what is being done with their people.”

When in doubt as to whether the new position of the Government generates rejection towards Spain, he denies - "they only feel hatred towards Morocco" - and explains that the Saharawis place their hopes on those they consider their "compatriots" and on the associative movements that support the Summers in Peace, but who do not trust any government.

The program, which in more than four decades was only interrupted by the Covid pandemic, integrates families of all political currents.

«My family is not from Podemos, precisely.

But neither do they believe that with Feijóo things would change, they know that nobody does anything, ”says

Tesh Sidi

, fostered as a child by a family from Alicante and who has finally obtained nationality.

The "unanimity" of the opinion of Spanish families regarding the situation in Western Sahara stands out, "since people know that it was a Spanish province and many, like my parents, have Spanish documentation and have contributed to Social Security" .

delay in the program

The convulsive relations between Spain, Morocco and

Algeria

have caused delays in the procedures of the program.

This year the documentation of children almost a month.

«The Saharawi Delegation for Spain pointed out that one of the drawbacks was the delay in approval in the BOE»,

Virginia

points out .

This uncertainty means that this year the number of children has been reduced by almost half that of 2019.

Tesh also denounces that "the PSOE has shortened humanitarian aid, which is precisely what they constantly hide behind."

"Apart from not doing what she said, she's making it worse," Virginia seconded.

Sánchez, in his 2019 electoral program, assumed: "We will promote the solution of the conflict in Western Sahara through compliance with the United Nations resolutions, which guarantee the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people."

Neither of them trusts in a change of position in Moncloa after the next elections.

Both understand that until Algeria corners Spain, the Government will not react.

Although, as Tesh indicates, "people are so little politicized that we don't even cut off our gas we go out to protest in the streets."

It's not all regrets.

There is also joy to see a program recovered that begins to be prepared in September, when the registration lists are opened.

However, last year, due to the pandemic, the

Ministry of Education

did not confirm it until February.

«We have been able to verify that people are not motivated by an ideology, but that they really feel the Saharawi cause.

That is why, despite the difficulties, we have managed to get 122 families in Madrid alone, "says Virginia.

“They have been less, yes, due to the pandemic and the crisis, but almost all of them have been new families of all ideologies.”

Beyond the reception of children, the clashes with Algeria are blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid and the situation in the Tindouf refugee camps is increasingly dramatic.

For Tesh, this situation is going to get worse, since “if Spain's position legitimizes Morocco as the good one, the young Spanish generations are going to ignore the reality that we have been suffering for years and in the future they will not support us.

We will forget."

The last socialist stronghold of the free Sahara

Aman Hamoudi

has been the deputy secretary of organization for the Socialist Youth of Madrid since February 20.

Saharawi, resident in Spain for 17 years, when he was proclaimed he took the stage claiming the self-determination of the former Spanish colony.

That is also the position of the youth organization of the PSOE, which lives in abysmal contradiction with its elders, from the republican claim to support for the Saharawi cause, which Sánchez despised to the maximum.

"Sad and disappointed.

We have fallen for blackmail and have sided with the invader.

We cannot have double standards or double standards," Hamoudi wrote on Twitter, about a photo of Sánchez with Zelenski and another of the Spanish president with

Mohamed VI.

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