The socialist party, PSOE, of Pedro Sanchez, and some far-right parties were the only ones to vote against the text of the European Parliament on the situation of journalists in Morocco.
The vote in the European Parliament on the text on freedom of the press in Morocco held on Thursday, January 19, was marked by the absence of nearly a third of MEPs (430 present out of 705).
Drafted and promoted by the democrats and liberals Renew Europe, the Greens/ALE, the group of European conservatives and reformists (CRE) as well as far-left parties, the non-binding text collected 356 votes for, 32 against, and 42 abstentions.
The day after this vote, the Spanish media noted the counter-current position taken by the Spanish socialist party, PSOE. Because indeed the seventeen Spanish Socialist MEPs voted against the virulent text, with the exception of their leader Iratxe García, who spoke in favor of the text.
The Spanish Socialists were the only ones “alongside a dozen ultra-right MEPs to speak out against this text”, underlines El Independiente.
It should be noted that this vote comes just a few days before the Morocco-Spain high-level meeting in Rabat, after several postponements and blockages.
As a reminder, Spain and Morocco have decided that the twelfth high-level meeting will take place on February 1 and 2 in Rabat, the Spanish Foreign Ministry announced in a press release. Postponed several times, this meeting comes following the normalization of relations between Rabat and Madrid after several months of tension. A “new stage” was inaugurated last April after the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez made a historic reversal on the Spanish position around the Sahara conflict.
