On Saturday, the Istiqlal party organized a rally in Laayoune, chaired by its general secretary Nizar Baraka. The meeting gathered nearly 50,000 people according to numbers made public by the party's leaders. Nizar Baraka delivered a speech in the main square of the city, where several singers performed, including Moroccan singer Dounia Batma. The rally hosted by Laayoune and made possible by Hamdi Ould Rachid, the president of the Laayoune commune, comes after the National Rally of Independents (RNI) organized a similar event in Dakhla. But contrary to RNI's meeting, Nizar Baraka's rally angered members of the Polisario Front. On Sunday, pro-Polisario newspaper Futuro Sahara denounced the event, calling it «provocative». The newspaper also denounced the way in which the separatist movement reacted to the rally. Brahim Ghali's movement also seized this opportunity to urge pro-Polisario activists in the Sahara to «intensify the struggle and defeat the plans» of Morocco.
