Arberi

The main Spanish parties against the recognition of the Independence of Kosovo

Parliament of Spain

The Parliament of Spain during the discussion on Kosovo

The conservative Spanish parties VOX, the Popular Party (PP) and the Socialist Party of Galicia have opposed the idea of ​​recognizing Kosovo's independence during the debate on Tuesday in the Spanish Parliament.

The proposal to put the recognition of Kosovo on the agenda was made by the Catalan separatist party "Juntas". The deputy of this party, Eduard Pujol Bonell, explaining the proposal, said that Kosovo is a "state of law", whose independence was also recognized by the Hague Court.

Carlos Flores Juberias from the VOX party strongly opposed the recognition of Kosovo, saying that there are many reasons why Spain should not do so. According to him, Spain's position is respected by other countries and  no one is forcing Spain to recognize Kosovo.

"In the international context, half of the United Nations has recognized Kosovo, the other half has not. By the way, do you know how many new countries have recognized Kosovo's independence in the last 10 years? I will name Tonga, Antigua and Barbuda, Singapore, Suriname, Bangladesh and Barbados. How many of them can you find on the map?", said Juberias.

As one of the reasons for the non-recognition of Kosovo, Juberias mentioned international law and recalled resolution 1244 of the United Nations Security Council.

"And no subsequent resolution, least of all the fraudulent resolution of the International Court of Justice of July 22, 2010, which ignored any analysis of whether international law gave Kosovo a positive right to unilaterally declare its independence, leads to the opposite", said the deputy of VOX, the far-right party.

He emphasized that the recognition of Kosovo will negatively affect the relations with Serbia, which according to him is a key country for the stability of the Balkans and with which Spain has a trade exchange that grows from year to year. As Juberias said, bilateral relations between Spain and Serbia are improving.

"Kosovo is neither a fully democratic nor fully sovereign state, as for the first, I will suffice by giving you the information that since the Independence of Kosovo until today, more than 200 thousand Serbs have had to leave that territory and for those who are left, the situation is unstable", said Juberias.

Obdulia Taboadela Alvarez from the Socialist Party of Galicia, the ruling party, has said that Spain remains firm in its position not to recognize Kosovo, "but it has been working for a long time in negotiations to resolve the conflict within the international community".

"The position of the Group of Socialists and the Government of Spain is based on public international law and the principle of territorial integrity of states, respect for their sovereignty. Moreover, as you know, this position is consistent with the position established by resolution 1244 of 1999 of the United Nations Security Council. The history of Kosovo and the Balkans is too complicated to summarize in a few minutes", she said.

Alvarez has said that the Spanish socialists insist on the stability of the region, given the conflicts in Ukraine.

The Socialists, the Popular Party and VOX are the three largest parties in Spain. All three reiterated the position of not recognizing Kosovo.