The highest authority of Gibraltar, forceful just hours before joining Europe: “The sovereignty of the Rock is only negotiated with the King”

Since 1989, when Berlin fell, 74 border walls were built in the world. However, the fence that separates Gibraltar from the rest of Spain – in place since 1909 – will cease to exist on Wednesday, July 15.

The British government raised that artificial border at the beginning of the last century to delimit the border of the rock which the Spanish reluctantly gave up with the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713.

Spain never stopped claiming sovereignty over those 6.8 square kilometers inhabited by just over 38 thousand souls who, in Spanish eyes, are continuity of the Andalusian landscape.

Fabian Picardochief minister and highest political authority of the British colony, received Clarion at number 6 Convent Place, in the center of Gibraltar.

From there he governs a population that in 2016 mostly said “no” to Brexit – which the British of the parent company did embrace to leave the European Union – and which is hours away. enter the Schengen free movement area of which the United Kingdom was never part.

This is what the European Union, Spain and the United Kingdom agreed for the Rock of Gibraltar: the elimination of barriers and customs controls for people and goods that circulate between La Línea de la Concepción, in the province of Cádiz, and the overseas territory of Gibraltar.

More than 15,500 neighbors who work on one side of the fence and live on the other They will no longer have to go through passport control which will be transferred to the airport of the British colony.

The agreement, however, keeps English sovereignty intact and the status of the rock.

“I am never going to sit down with anyone to negotiate or discuss the sovereignty of Gibraltar,” he tells Clarion Picardo, who has governed since 2011 and leads the Socialist Labor Party of Gibraltar.

“The sovereignty of Gibraltar It is a matter between the Gibraltarian and our monarch. It’s over,” he adds, forcefully, as he turns and points to the portrait of King Charles III of England that presides over the meeting room.

“The political status of Gibraltar was determined in 1967, in the then referendum, and confirmed in the 2002 referendum. we are british in sovereignty”, defines Picardo.

“In 2016, when we voted as part of the British Brexit referendum, we said very clearly that the future we wanted was also European – he underlines -. We made a decision that was contrary to much of the United Kingdom. But Gibraltar said very clearly: ‘We have a future with the European Union because we are part of the same continent’. “Our future is European, socio-culturally, but being a British people.”

-US President Donald Trump, in one of his anger with NATO allies for lack of collaboration in their attacks on Iran, threatened to withdraw his support for the United Kingdom regarding its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, a historic Argentine claim. Could the same happen about Gibraltar?

-President Trump has said many things, but in relation to the Falklands (Malvinas) he has said nothing. There has been an advisor in the Pentagon who has written to another advisor in the Pentagon saying that one of the options, if we want to slap the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, maybe this would be this. But in relation to the Falklands, President Trump has said nothing.

-Wouldn’t you like Gibraltar to be independent?

-I am the one who defends that Gibraltar should be British. If it is British it is not independent.

-How is the status of Gibraltar different from that of the Malvinas?

-Gibraltar and the Falklands are almost identical cases, but not legally identical. In relation to Gibraltar, there is a treaty. In relation to the Malvinas, as you call them, there is no treaty. That doesn’t change. In the postwar period, the position that should prevail is that the populations of the sites are the ones that should determine the future of those sites. In the charter of the United Nations it is stated very clearly, and in the resolutions as well: it is what is called the colonial people that must determine its future. It cannot be one country that suddenly comes to agree with another that a land is transferred against the population of that land. And in that, Falklands and Gibraltar are identical. They have their population and their population must be able to determine the future of that place that they call home.

I think it is the most sacred thing, where you have your ancestors buried, where your children are growing up, where they are going to bury you. That is your place, it is your land, it is the most sacred thing there is, right? Today Gibraltar is autonomous in everything, except defense and external relations, but totally, entirely and exclusively British.

-Points out aspects that are so crucial at this time such as defense and foreign policy. If you had these powers, would you make a different decision than the one the United Kingdom takes in these matters?

-It is not my responsibility, but I allow myself to tell you that I believe that, in the last 50 years, Gibraltar has been exactly where it needs to be, because the decisions that the British prime ministers have taken have been the correct ones. There have been decisions contrary to Gibraltar’s positions in relation to Gibraltar and we have insisted that Gibraltar’s point of view should prevail. For example, the idea that Mr. Tony Blair (British Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007) and Mr. Jack Straw (former English Foreign Minister) had of sharing (with Spain) the sovereignty of Gibraltar. That was a crazy idea. The people of Gibraltar voted in their referendum and there we killed that madness.

-And at this specific moment, in which all the focuses are once again on the Strait of Hormuz, how is Gibraltar positioned, a strategic point on the international board?

-Gibraltar is one of the five most important straits in the world. We are watching what happens in Hormuz. If suddenly in Hormuz it is permissible to charge two million dollars for each ship that passes through the strait, I suppose we will also be allowed in the other four straits, right? Between Morocco, Spain and Gibraltar we can share two million dollars for each ship that passes… It’s not going to happen. We must defend freedom of navigation through all the straits of the world. If not, the world could become a toll highway. That would be a very bad thing and I defend freedom of navigation.

-Aren’t territorial waters part of Spain’s claim on Gibraltar?

-I have it very clear. Everything that is territorial in Gibraltar is a point of dispute and difference between the government of Gibraltar and my great friends in the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, because we have not been able to agree on anything and we will not be able to agree on anything. As I told you, Gibraltar does not have to negotiate or discuss its sovereignty with anyone other than the boss, who is the king of Gibraltar and the king of the United Kingdom. But all of this is encapsulated in a clause in Article 2 of the agreement or treaty that we have already managed to finalize. And there are 1,083 pages in that treaty, that is, the disagreement is on one page. There are 1,082 more pages. Ask me about those.

-Well, summarize them for me, please.

-Let’s see, this is an agreement to be able to have freedom of movement of people, movement of goods. Have the possibility for people to come to visit Gibraltar from all over the European Union without having to show their passport; that those who live in Gibraltar and want to go to the rest of the European continent, in particular to Spain and the surrounding area of ​​​​the Gibraltar countryside, have the ability to do so; that everyone who is living in that area can come to Gibraltar too. We talk about the job opportunity, the economic opportunity, but more important than all that: we are people. And so, what we have achieved, as politicians, is to remove a barrier so that people can have that human exchange that they have been having in this area for hundreds of years, with barrier and without barrier. And that they have that freedom to find each other and continue to fall in love. I have Spanish blood and I am not ashamed of that at all.

-What percentage of the population born and raised in Gibraltar lives the rest of their lives here, perhaps having the possibility of doing so in the United Kingdom?

-The majority of people who are born in Gibraltar return to Gibraltar. Although we pay a scholarship to any Gibraltarian who secures a place at a university in the UK, the vast majority return. When they have children, they want to live in freedom, they want their children to be in Gibraltar.

-Does the Gibraltar government finance Gibraltarian students to go to study in the United Kingdom?

-Every Gibraltarian student who is at school in Gibraltar and who goes to the United Kingdom for university has their entire scholarship paid. We also pay for your upkeep while you are in the UK. If you go to a university anywhere else in the world, we give you the equivalent of what we would have given you if you had been studying in the UK. For example, if you choose to go to a university in the United States, where it is much more expensive, we give you the tuition fee (what the tuition and academic year cost) British, which today is 1,750 pounds. We are a socialist labor party for a reason. That has been the system since 1968. It was the system in the United Kingdom until Mrs. (Margaret) Thatcher (British Prime Minister between 1979 and 1990) removed it.

-Where does the government of Gibraltar collect so much to allow itself to have such large social aid?

-Gibraltar sells services to the entire world. We sell online betting services, insurance services to the United Kingdom. For example, three out of every ten cars in the UK are insured with an insurer in Gibraltar. 60 per cent, almost two thirds of all online betting in the UK, is betting with entities based in Gibraltar.

-Is Gibraltar a tax haven?

-It is an old legend, but if you ask those who determine whether we are a tax haven, which are the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), the European Union, etc., they say that it is not true.

-How do the political ups and downs of the United Kingdom affect Gibraltar? (In June, when British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation, Picardo sent him a letter thanking him for “your strong support for Gibraltar.”)

-It is an issue foreign to Gibraltar. I have a very good relationship with the Labor Party, with the Conservative Party and we have a good relationship with Reform UK, with the Green Party. Whoever is the ruling party in the United Kingdom has the government of Gibraltar as an ally.

-King Charles III has not yet visited Gibraltar since he was king (he assumed the throne in 2022 when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died)

-Do you know if you are planning to travel to see this overseas territory?

-I don’t know what the king is thinking.

-Perhaps an official visit is planned soon

-If he were, I wouldn’t tell him.