Django ckeditor is removing space around tags

I'm using django-ckeditor with this config:

        'enterMode': 2, 
        'forceEnterMode': 'true',
        'basicEntities': 'false',
        
        'fillEmptyBlocks': 'false',
        'tabSpaces': 0,
        'entities': 'false',

When the original text look like this:

word1 <a>word2</a> word3

The final result after saving looks like this:

word1<a>word2</a>word3

I tried almost all possibilities when it comes to basicEntities, fillEmptyBlocks, tabSpaces and other configurations, but no way, ckeditor is always removing spaces around tags.

After several trials, I stopped searching for a solution. Your help will be appreciated.

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