European Parliament disbands polisario group, new setback for Algiers

A group defending Polisario separatism in the European parliament has been disbanded, in yet a new set back for Algeria which has used the same group as a platform for anti-Morocco propaganda.

The intergroup was long used by Algeria as an interference tool in the European Parliament, which has its own delegation in charge of the Maghreb. Hence no need for a group defending an Algerian agenda.

Algeria and its Polisario proxies had used the group for over two decades in a failed attempt to unsettle EU-Morocco ties.

The diplomatic blow to the Polisario came amid deteriorating relations between Algeria and the European Union in general. The association agreement has faced setbacks, while a rift is widening between key EU member states, due to Algiers economic retaliation measures against France and Spain.

Algeria has shown Europe that it is the real party in the Sahara conflict, ready to go as far as self-harm by weaponizing trade in reprisal against EU powers that back Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara.

Algeria’s grim human rights record and its recent arbitrary arrest of a French-Algerian writer Boulem Sansal, has painted the country as a source of instability on the EU’s southern borders.

The European Parliament had denounced Algeria for arresting Sansal and for its crackdown against dissent at home and abroad.