By David Eade
I have heard a recording of the Chief Minister’s radio interview in Spain and read some Spanish news agency reports: at first listen and glance it seems he spoke well for Gibraltar. I very much liked the term “Medieval politics” and am a bit miffed I never thought of it first. However I will happily purloin it and make it my own!
One of the themes of Fabian Picardo’s discourse was the willingness of his government to go back to the trilateral forum. He rightly stated that many of the events we now see as major problems could be easily solved if the parties – Gibraltar and Spain specifically but along with the UK – were all in direct contact.
EVERY DAY PROBLEMS
The problem is Gibraltar and the UK want to talk about every day problems and opportunities especially in the bay zone in which we live. Spain, or more accurately the Partido Popular government in Madrid, only wants to talk about sovereignty and it wants to do that one a bilateral basis with London.
So if we return to the tripartite talks instigated under PSOE Spain has to understand that sovereignty is not on the agenda. The former Supreme Leader seemed to indicate to Madrid that anything including sovereignty could be on the table: but in this new era of honest politics Gibraltar and the UK has to make clear that simply will not be the case.
This creates a problem for the Partido Popular. Having rubbished the tripartite process created by PSOE it cannot now adopt the same policy towards Gibraltar. Indeed it only has one police towards Gibraltar and that’s taking back the Rock as part of the Spanish nation.
If I read one report correctly our Chief Minister bemoaned the fact that none of his ministers had had direct contact with their Spanish counterparts since taking office. Indeed nor will they under a Partido Popular government in Madrid because in its view Gibraltarians are a non people and hence we have a non government.
I find it instructive that in many of the trouble spots of the world, and I mean real trouble spots such as Afghanistan or Northern Ireland, open or behind the scenes talks go went on with groups like the Taliban and the IRA. In contrast in Gibraltar we have a democratically elected government, are members of the EU, yet Spain refuses to let its ministers sit down with ours. I am not sure that is medieval politics more simply bizarre behaviour and an alarming lack of a sense of reality.
The problem for Gibraltar is that the Partido Popular government in Madrid has a sovereignty fixation and it is not going to be cured any time soon. I started arguing back in the 1990s that there might be international moves to bounce Gibraltar in to a sovereignty deal with Spain so that our neighbours could save face in handing Ceuta and Melilla back to Morocco.
Morocco is seen as an Islamic bastion against such fundamentalist terror groups as Al Qaeda and is hence a close ally of the USA. Morocco may well push the States to pressure Spain to hand over what is claims is part of its nation and you can see where that could go for yourselves.
However whilst that scenario still exists we now find the Basques and Catalans openly pushing for independence. Shortly push is going to come to shove and their stampede to leave the Spanish nation will only intensify the Partido Popular’s determination to take Gibraltar as its one fig leaf on the statue of State.
ASPIRATION RATHER THAN REALITY
So yes the Chief Minister is right to say we should return to the tripartite table to discuss matters that concern Gibraltar and Spain. However I suspect as long as the Partido Popular is in power that will be an aspiration rather than a reality. There is no guarantee that Rajoy or the PP will see out this government’s full term. That is not necessarily good news for Spain or Gibraltar. PSOE seems in no position to step back in to the hot seat so if the Spanish people reject this government the nation may well just slip in to total chaos. In that situation we’ll have plenty to talk about but not with Madrid.
31-10-12
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