Gibraltar: Between the Rock and an increasingly hard-line place

[Aragorn]

Gibraltar: Between the Rock and an increasingly hard-line place

Gibraltar's newly-elected Chief Minister tells Harriet Alexander that the Rock will not shake under Spanish pressure.

Fabian Picardo's office is surrounded by guns. In the courtyard sits a huge black cannon, while the entrance is protected by two more gold plated monsters, glinting in the sun.


But the newly-elected Chief Minister of Gibraltar hopes that he will find a peaceful way of protecting the Rock – despite an escalation in the war of words with Madrid.


"We are always hopeful that Spain will follow us into the 21st Century and drop its claim on our land," said Mr Picardo, in his first interview with a British newspaper since winning the December election.


"The Spanish government are playing to their constituency of support and concentrating more on the theory of their claim, rather than the realities on the ground. And that is a tragedy for people of both sides of the frontier."


If Mr Picardo, 39, was expecting a gentle introduction to the 300-year-old tussle over the sovereignty of Gibraltar, then he has had a brusque awakening. Just as the newly re-elected Cristina Kirchner in Argentina has made a diplomatic push against British "colonisation" of the Falkland Islands a key policy of her government, Spain's ruling Partido Popular (PP) – itself freshly in power, following the November general elections – has been pushing sovereignty over Gibraltar up the agenda.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/9061381/Gibraltar-Between-the-Rock-and-an-increasingly-hard-line-place.html

[LordHawHaw]

The Spanish Government is just trying to divert popular opinion away from the domestic mess that Spain has been reduced to. The oldest political trick in the book.

[Ambrosio Spinola]

http://estaticos04.cache.el-mundo.net/elmundo/imagenes/2012/02/21/espana/1329749576_extras_portada_0.jpg

Sure its a non issue really but keep in mind that we now have a conservative goverment here. What the minister conveyed was a long overdue point in that the local Gibraltarese goverment has no say in bilateral talks between both nations. Just like the terms of the original agreement were respected by the UK in matters of Hong Kong (without asking the locals) so should the original treaty concerning that stupid rock be respected (Utrecht treaty).
Its not really a matter of demaning the rock back and crap like that but rather the issues arrising constantly due to the place being used as a safe heaven for smuglers, money launderers, tax evaders and other suspicious elements that have no place in today´s European Union. Also, constant problems with the locals not respecting the treaty in matters of territorial waters and problems given in use of the local airport built on actual Spanish land irritate people.
For all we care the UK can keep and mantain these maltese, spaniards and other imported nationalities for ever. Just respect the financial and tax treaties and obligations the rest of the Union has to and follow the treaty as signed.

[Niccolo and Donkey]

No Fear!

The Brits are sending their best military men (http://www.thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?p=1079116#post1079116) to Gibraltar to protect its people from Spain.

[Charlie Robespierre]

If you go by the books the brazen pirates have only legal entitlement to the town. Everywhere else within the Gibraltar space is properly Spanish. The entire zone should be demilitarised and governed alá Andorra. That would be an honourable solution. But the pirates will have none if it of course.

[Gregz]

If you go by the books the brazen pirates have only legal entitlement to the town. Everywhere else within the Gibraltar space is properly Spanish. The entire zone should be demilitarised and governed alá Andorra. That would be an honourable solution. But the pirates will have none if it of course.

The English = 17th century Somalis lol

Drunken Sailer :irish:

qGyPuey-1Jw

[scotti]

falklands and gibraltar are nothing but vanity colonies for britain.

its a bit rich picardo asking the spanish to move into the 21st century. what other european nations have posessions in europe in the 21st century?

[scotti]

If you go by the books the brazen pirates have only legal entitlement to the town. Everywhere else within the Gibraltar space is properly Spanish. The entire zone should be demilitarised and governed alá Andorra. That would be an honourable solution. But the pirates will have none if it of course.

yes they must keep their colonies to apparently show how good they to the rest of the world

[Donau Schwaben]

The English = 17th century Somalis lol

Drunken Sailer :irish:

qGyPuey-1Jw

TOTAL GARBAGE GREGZ

[Gregz]

TOTAL GARBAGE GREGZ

Bah you take yourself far to seriously. :p

[Gregz]

The Spanish Government is just trying to divert popular opinion away from the domestic mess that Spain has been reduced to. The oldest political trick in the book.

Spain is in a better state than Portugal and they have a lot of industry. Far more so in fact than the UK.

[Ambrosio Spinola]

...they have a lot of industry. Far more so in fact than the UK.

I very much doubt that. Spain tore much of its heavy industry down when joining the EU.

[Gregz]

I very much doubt that. Spain tore much of its heavy industry down when joining the EU.

Spain is a major EU exporter of cars a lorries and it's not a backwater like Portugal. Theirs still a lot of agricultural factories and light industry in places like Catalonia and Spain has a fairly diversified economy.