The parliamentary group of the Catalan party ‘Junts’ has submitted an initiative to propose to the Spanish government the recognition of Kosovo as a sovereign state.
This initiative, which will be debated and voted on tomorrow in parliament, argues that Kosovo is a lawful and democratic state with 1.7 million inhabitants, recognized by over 100 countries, including 22 EU members.
Junts emphasizes that it is unacceptable for Spain to follow the same strategy as Russia, China, and Belarus by not recognizing Kosovo. They point out that Spain already has indirect relations with Kosovo and has recognized Kosovar passports since January.
Junts’ proposal seeks for parliament to urge the Spanish government to immediately recognize the Republic of Kosovo as a sovereign state.
Regarding the possibility of Spain recognizing Kosovo, Spanish political scientist Alejandro Perez spoke in an interview with “Bota sot.”
He mentioned that Spain ties the recognition to the dialogue with Serbia, while stating that it is unclear what kind of result the dialogue must produce for Spain to officially recognize Kosovo.
“Spain has persistently argued that it rejects unilateral declarations of independence and will make a political move only after Kosovo and Serbia resolve their dispute through EU-facilitated dialogue. It is unclear what kind of result the dialogue must produce for Spain to officially recognize Kosovo,” the Spanish political scientist declared.
Additionally, Perez explained the reasons behind Spain’s recognition of Palestine but not Kosovo.
He highlighted that the decision to recognize the Palestinian state was made by the Spanish prime minister during election time, aiming for some electoral benefit.
“I believe Spain’s decision to recognize Palestine is based on two main considerations: first, there is broad support among the Spanish population for the Palestinian cause, with nearly 80% of citizens supporting a two-state solution according to recent data. Therefore, this decision is perceived as the right thing to do by a significant portion of the population, making it a political success for the Spanish government – and it might have some pull at the European level (besides the simultaneous decision by Ireland and Norway). Second, with EU elections approaching, this seemed like the right time for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to play this card, as it could bring an electoral benefit for his party.”
Furthermore, the Spanish political scientist noted that Sanchez, and previous prime ministers, have handled the issue of Kosovo quite awkwardly.
“The issue of Kosovo currently lacks the importance in public discourse to have major claims for recognition for the Spanish government to act. Sanchez, and previous prime ministers before him, have handled the Kosovo issue in quite an awkward manner, simply ignoring Kosovo’s existence – something that has not happened with Palestine. For instance, Palestine has an Embassy in Spain – so the starting points of Palestine and Kosovo are certainly very different,” Alejandro Perez concluded for “Bota sot.”
