Spain’s People’s Party (PP) and VOX party have expressed irritation with the Spanish government’s shifting tone concerning Morocco’s fish farm in the Chafarinas Islands.
The reaction comes after a parliamentary response from Spain’s left-wing coalition administration to Fernando Gutierrez Diaz de Otazu, the PP’s representative for Melilla, stating that aquaculture farms are the duty of the “autonomous” areas.
In an earlier statement, VOX Melilla had lamented the fact that Pedro Sanchez’s government “does nothing but lie” on the issue of the Moroccan-run fish firm in the Chafarinas Islands.
Claiming that the fish farm is installed within Spain’s “sovereign waters,” the far-right and notoriously anti-Moroccan party argued that the “management of the central government regarding this fish farm is unforgivable.”
VOX accused Sanchez’s government of “hiding information,” denouncing how “unbelievable [his] government dodges responsibilities.”
In the face of an alleged “new attack on [Spanish] sovereignty” from Morocco, Melilla’s VOX also questioned the Pedro Sanchez government’s commitment to ensuring “the integrity of Spain.”
The fish farm, the party concluded according to Spanish outlet Hispanidad, is “yet another Moroccan provocation to the Spanish government.” according to Spanish outlet Hispanidad.
Another polity party to have been infuriated by Spain’s increasingly conciliatory stance on the fish farm controversy is mainstream right and Christian conservative People’s Party (PP).
In a strongly worded response to Madrid’s new position, the party said it was “absurd” that the Spanish government claims it has “no competence” in the Moroccan fish farm in the Chafarinas Islands.
Read also: Spain Changes Tone on Morocco’s Fish Farm in Chafarinas Islets
PP’s Melilla representative Fernando Gutierrez Díaz de Otazu said the government’s “response makes no sense.” He argued that the Chafarinas Islands and the rocks under Spanish sovereignty in North Africa “are not under the control of any region or autonomous city.”
Both the PP and Vox are now urging the Spanish government to firmly react to Morocco’s installation of the fish farm in the Chafarinas Islands.
Spain’s shifting of tone comes as several Spanish officials have recently sought to mend a diplomatic rift with Morocco over the migration crisis in Ceuta and the diplomatic slight of Spain in sheltering Brahim Ghali, the leader of the separatist Polisario Front.
