Madrid Rises in Defiance: A Powerful Call for Sahrawi Self-Determination
✍️ BY: Dr. Hana Saada
Algiers – November 2025 – Madrid witnessed an extraordinary wave of mobilisation on Saturday, as thousands gathered in the heart of the Spanish capital to reaffirm—loudly and unequivocally—the inalienable right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination. The demonstration, described by organisers as one of the most forceful in recent years, converged outside the headquarters of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where protesters demanded that Spain finally assume its historic, legal and moral responsibilities toward Western Sahara.
Participants brandished banners urging Madrid to respect international law and to cease what they denounced as a decades-long policy of evasion and complicity. Calls to “end the injustice” and “restore Sahrawi rights” echoed through the city’s avenues, driven by a sentiment that the Spanish state continues to shirk its obligations as the internationally recognised administering power of the territory—a status reaffirmed by the Spanish National Court in its landmark ruling of July 2014.
At the core of the mobilisation was a fierce denunciation of what demonstrators labelled the “fatal and shameful pact” between Spain and Morocco, an agreement they say has robbed the Sahrawi people of their right to freely determine their future. The rally served as a vivid reminder that, fifty years after the controversial Madrid Accords of 14 November 1975, the wounds inflicted by this geopolitical bargain remain open, painful and unresolved.
Prominent journalists and writers added their voices to the outcry. In El Independiente, writer Francisco Carrión published a forceful analysis titled “The Tripartite Madrid Accords: The Illegal Pact Binding Spain to Western Sahara”, in which he describes the 1975 agreements as nothing less than a “flagrant violation of international law.” Carrión argues that Spain’s decision to transfer the administration of the territory without consulting its people constituted a historic betrayal—one that facilitated Morocco’s occupation, the plundering of natural resources, and a humanitarian tragedy that endures to this day. He calls the accords a “historic disgrace” and an “open wound in Spain’s conscience,” stressing that the silence of successive governments has only deepened the injustice.
Journalist Luis Portillo Pasqual del Riquelme echoed this assessment in his article “Popular Solidarities with Occupied Western Sahara,” describing the ongoing situation as “a moral and political scandal.” A member of the Spanish Centre for Studies on Western Sahara (CESO) and the Solidarity Movement with Sahrawi Political Prisoners (MPPS), he condemned the “hypocrisy” of political elites who champion human rights in rhetoric while ignoring the reality of military occupation, forced displacement and systematic resource exploitation. Portillo was unequivocal: “We support the Sahrawi people not out of pity but because a major injustice has been committed—and because Spain bears a historic and moral responsibility.”
For countless Sahrawis, the Madrid Accords represent more than a diplomatic miscalculation—they symbolise a betrayal that plunged an entire people into war, exile and occupation. Rights advocates, scholars and solidarity movements have long denounced the agreements as a “crime,” arguing that they allowed Spain to evade its obligation to complete the decolonisation process and to organise a free and fair referendum under UN supervision, as mandated since 1966.
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