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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Spain’s Congress to vote on nationality law for Sahrawis on Sept. 10

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources New plan
  • Spain’s Congress is scheduled to vote Sept. 10 on a bill granting Spanish nationality to eligible people born in Western Sahara and their descendants.
  • The proposal, introduced by left-wing Sumar, won preliminary backing in July, while the conservative Popular Party and Junts abstained and Vox opposed it.
  • The revised bill sets the eligibility date before Sept. 29, 1977, allows applications from descendants without legal residence in Spain and gives applicants three years to apply after the law takes effect.

Spain’s Congress will vote on Sept. 10 on a nationality law aimed at people born in Western Sahara before Sept. 29, 1977, and their descendants. The measure is expected to pass the lower house and then go to the Senate.

The bill came from the left-wing Sumar group and already received preliminary support from most parliamentary forces on July 23, including the Socialist Party, the senior partner in Spain’s coalition government. The conservative Popular Party and Catalan independence party Junts abstained. Vox voted against it.

Negotiations before the vote changed the eligibility deadline from 1976 in the original proposal to Sept. 29, 1977. Descendants would also be able to apply even if they do not hold legal residence in Spain. Applications would have to be filed within three years after the law enters into force, with the Justice Ministry able to extend that period by one year.

Applicants could use an expired Spanish national identity document, proof of registration in the United Nations census for a Western Sahara referendum, a birth certificate or a family record book, among other documents.

Spain left Western Sahara in 1975. Morocco now controls two-thirds of the disputed territory, while the Polisario Front supports a referendum on its political future and full independence. Morocco and the Sahrawi independence movement accepted a U.N. ceasefire and referendum plan in 1988, but the vote has not taken place after repeated Moroccan objections to the voter census. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez shifted Spain’s position in 2022 by backing Morocco’s autonomy proposal. A U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in October 2025 said genuine autonomy could be the most feasible outcome.

a genuine autonomy could represent the most feasible outcome

· United Nations Security CouncilThe phrase comes from a resolution cited in the discussion of Western Sahara’s political future.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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