Costa de la Luz
Gibraltar First Minister suggests Spain concentrate on Unemployment, rather than Sovereignty
By h.b. - Jan 31, 2012 - 7:20 PM
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Fabian Picardo - EFE
Fabian Picardo has been interviewed on Spanish radio
Gibraltar has advised Spain to worry about her unemployment and not the sovereignty of the Rock. New First Minister, Fabian Picardo, said ‘With five and a bit million unemployed, I have the impression that the Spaniards have other priorities’. He said that Gibraltar would never give permission for the United Kingdom to reopen talks on the sovereignty of the Rock.
Speaking on Spanish Punto Radio, made a call to the Foreign Minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, to treat Gibraltar with ‘friendship as a neighbouring people’.
The PP cabinet has said they want to talk about sovereignty with London, and replace the 3-way dialogue with another framework which would include delegates from Andalucía.
Picardo said that in the 21st century the objective should be to work together, and he extended an invitation to García-Margallo to visit to understand the reality of his ‘small nation’. He said that nobody understood the Spanish Foreign Minister when he said ‘The joke of Gibraltar was over’.
Picardo insisted that he had the support of David Cameron, and also recalled that between 6,000 and 7,000 Spaniards work in Gibraltar, and hardly a dozen of Gibraltarians work in Spain. That said he then added ‘But we go shopping a lot and have a great time in Spain’.
Picardo is a 39 year old lawyer and grandson of a Spanish republican. He lamented that ‘since Franco’ Spanish politicians had ‘almost daily’ tried to destroy ‘the grand friendship’ which unites both peoples.
Meanwhile the British Secretary of State for Europe, David Lidington, is in Madrid on Wednesday for a working visit with the Spanish Government. The main objective is to discuss the economic situation in Europe, and the need to generate employment and growth, although the matter of Gibraltar is also expected to be raised.
Lidington will meet separately with the Secretary of State for the EU, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, and with the number two from the Foreign Ministry, Gonzalo de Benito. The former is set to explain the Spanish position on the Rock.