This Wednesday, June 30, the debate in the House of Representatives in Spain focused on Catalonia. The file divides Spanish society, especially after a left-wing coalition executive last week granted pardons to nine pro-independence leaders jailed in the province. A measure that should benefit fleeing politicians, including Carles Puigdemont. A point at the center of yesterday’s talks in Madrid, between Pedro Sánchez and the President of Catalonia, Father Arrognes.

Before the deputies, the head of government must ensure his majority until the end of his mandate, highlighting the “spirit of the 1978 Constitution” to protect the Catalan Republican Left’s gift to his “allies”.

Pedro Sánchez reiterated to elected officials from both the right and the left throughout the monitoring session that “there will be no self-determination referendum” in the region. “Those who defend it must persuade 3/5 of this Chamber to amend Article 2 of the Spanish Constitution. And then that the Spaniards ratify this amendment through a referendum”.

Self-determination: no to Catalonia yes to Western Sahara

And to make it clear that he would “never accept this kind of drift”, thus dealing with the Popular Party that was in power during Catalonia’s independence referendum on October 1, 2017. A radicalization of Pedro Sanchez is to be taken with caution. In favor of the censure motion in June 2018, he was opposed to any grace in favor of the imprisoned Catalan leaders.

Pedro Sánchez’s rejection of a referendum for self-determination in Catalonia gives a referendum in Western Sahara with the support of his government and the Spanish state in general. In his schedule for the April 28, 2019 legislative elections, the PSOE, of which he still heads, defended the “self-determination of the people of Western Sahara”. Its ally of Unidas-Podemos in government also stands for the recognition of the “Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)”. He has shown it once again on the occasion of June 14 March for the “liberation of the Saharawi people” in Madrid.

PP also defends the same objective as PSOE, even though, at the moment, it does not express it openly. However, Pedro Sanchez ignored the issue of “self-determination of the peoples of Western Sahara” during his 2019 and 2020 speeches at the UN General Assembly when he raised it in 2018. C is in accordance with the context of relations with Morocco. Its foreign minister quickly stepped up to the plate last December to condemn the Trump administration’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara.

After the Catalan referendum, Morocco hastened to officially condemn the independence project of the region. “The Kingdom of Morocco, as it has always been loyal to respecting the principles of international law, rejects the unilateral process of the independence of Catalonia, and expresses its attachment to the sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Spain. does”, indicated the department Nasser Bourita in a press release published on October 12, 2017.