The director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, announced this Monday in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), on the occasion of the annual meeting of the directors of the institutes, the intention to reopen the Institute in Gibraltar, closed in 2014, although he pointed out that it is a decision that depends on the Council of Ministers, the Presidency of the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At a press conference on the occasion of the start of the Annual Meeting, García Montero recalled that there was a Cervantes center in Gibraltar that had a “very significant performance, first because it became a cultural center of dialogue throughout the Campo de Gibraltar, between the Rock and the Campo de Gibraltar, and because it reinforced the teaching of Spanish when there were policies that attempted to lose Spanish within the Rock in order to impose English.”
“Unfortunately, the Cervantes in Gibraltar was closed due to political contradictions in the past and we believe it is appropriate for it to be reopened for all that it means,” he said.
García Montero stated that “the new situation” seems “very interesting” to him. “Returning to a dialogue that goes beyond the Fence seems very interesting to me and we have everything prepared and studied, we have even put an item in this year’s budgets to launch the opening of the Gibraltar center starting next year.”
However, he has warned that “it is a decision that no longer depends only on the Cervantes Institute, it depends on the Council of Ministers, the Presidency of the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”, although he has stressed that in the next budget they have an item to reopen.