It took the Polisario only eight months to ensure the creation of the «International Network of Parliamentarians for the Self-Determination of Western Sahara». The newly launched network held its first meeting, Friday, in Paris. As planned, months ago, the «International Network of Parliamentarians for the Self-Determination of Western Sahara», held its first meeting at the headquarters of the French National Assembly in Paris on Friday, June the 22nd. Around 240 MPs, senators and MEPs from Spain, France, Italy, Ghana, El Salvador and Algeria gathered in Paris to lay the foundation stone of the new platform, says SPS. The idea of creating such a network has been first initiated by French politician Jean-Paul Lecoq, who is also a member of the National Assembly of France. Thanks to Lecoq, the network has been conceived on the sidelines of the European Conference of Coordination and Support to the Sahrawi People (EUCOCO) held on the 20th, 21st and 22nd of October 2017 in Vitry-sur-Seine, adds the Polisario «press agency». «We call all countries, all the different inter-groups, friendship groups, solidarity associations and through this network to contribute to mobilize our parliamentary colleagues and our governments for the holding of a self-determination referendum in Western Sahara», said the International Network in a final statement it published at the end of its Paris meeting. A framework for all pro-Polisario parliamentarians Algeria has taken matters into its own hands, providing funds needed to achieve this goal. The creation of the «network» has been officially announced last February in Algiers, at a meeting dedicated the Western Sahara question and attended by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Algerians living aboard in the lower house. The new body will allow many pro-Polisario parliamentarians to come together and coordinate before taking action. The «platform is set to be a space of exchange and connection with the various inter-groups and associations supporting the self-determination of the Sahrawi people», stressed SPS. In the Kingdom, deputies created in May a group of action dedicated to the Western Sahara conflict. The body is the first of its kind in Morocco. For the record, the «International Network of Parliamentarians for Western Sahara Self-Determination», which will meet once a year, is chaired for one year by French deputy Jean-Paul Lecoq.
