The 30,000 inhabitants of Gibraltar are bravely standing up to a futile campaign of intimidation by Spain. As The Telegraph reported earlier this week, the Spanish government is threatening to impose a new border tax, close its airspace to planes using the British overseas territorys airport, and investigate the affairs of Gibraltarians with Spanish economic interests, all in an effort to harass the people of Gibraltar, the vast majority of whom are British citizens. This follows no less than 200 unlawful incursions by Spanish state vessels in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters last year. Madrid is acting like a schoolyard bully, behaving in a manner that is unbecoming of a major European democracy.
Inevitably comparisons must be drawn between Spains stance over Gibraltar, and Argentinas considerably more menacing approach towards the Falkland Islands. Significantly, in a show of solidarity, the Government of the Falklands has sent a strong message of support to the people of Gibraltar:
The Honourable Ian Hansen has sent a letter to Chief Minister Fabian Picardo:
On behalf of the people and Government of the Falkland Islands, I would like to say how concerned we are to learn of the rising tensions between yourselves and Spain.
We are pleased to hear the strong messages from the British Government in support of Gibraltar and would like to echo those sentiments. We hope that the situation does not escalate and that a swift resolution to the current crisis can be found.
We send our warm good wishes to our friends in Gibraltar and wish to let them know that we are thinking of them during this difficult time.
Fortunately, the relatively mild-mannered Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, is no Cristina Kirchner, and unlike Argentina, Spain is an important NATO ally and partner in Europe. But like his Latin American counterpart, Rajoy is increasingly unpopular at home, and faces major economic challenges much of which he inherited from the big spending Socialist government that came before him. His approval rating has slumped, while unemployment has hit a staggering 26 percent (rising to more than 50 percent among Spanish youth). In a recent poll, in the wake of damaging allegations of corruption leveled against the ruling party, 86 percent of Spaniards declared they did not trust Mr. Rajoy, with support for his Popular Party falling to just 23 percent. There can be no doubt that the Rajoy governments renewed posturing over Gibraltar is a desperate attempt to deflect attention away from troubles at home, which will only grow worse in the coming months. It is also showing the same callous disregard for the principle of self-determination displayed by Ms. Kirchner 8,000 miles away in the South Atlantic.
Madrids strategy will be a combination of making life as difficult as possible for the people of Gibraltar, while drumming up support for its position in southern Europe appealing to Portugal, Greece and Italy for example. Spain will also seek to woo both the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats on the issue, seeking to divide political opinion in the UK. As Peter Hains remarks make abundantly clear, the Labour government under Tony Blair had been willing to cut a deal with Spain to share sovereignty over Gibraltar, a deal that would have been nothing less than a complete betrayal of its inhabitants.
To its credit, the present British government has sent a clear signal to Spain that any attempt to intimidate Gibraltar will not succeed. The prime minister and foreign secretary have both been in contact with their Spanish counterparts to express their concerns. It should be abundantly evident to Spain that it has no interest in picking a fight over this issue, which it cannot win certainly as long as a Conservative-led government remains in power in the UK. The visit by Royal Navy warships to Gibraltar later this month (already planned as part of a routine naval exercise in the Mediterranean en route to the Gulf) will send a clear signal to Madrid that Britain will protect the territorial waters around Gibraltar if threatened.
Like the inhabitants of the Falklands, the people of Gibraltar have the right to self-determination, a right they emphatically exercised in a referendum in 2002, where 98.5 percent of Gibraltarians rejected the idea of joint UK-Spanish sovereignty. Gibraltar has full internal self-government through an elected House of Assembly, and has an association with Britain stretching back more than 300 years. Gibraltar deserves the support of all who believe in the principles of sovereignty and freedom. As Margaret Thatcher robustly put it at a press conference in 1982 when asked about the future of Gibraltar:
As you know, we have consistently said that the wishes of the inhabitants of Gibraltar are paramount and those would be our first consideration. That after all, and I cannot stress it too often, is what democracy is all aboutnot imposing something upon the peoples of a territory but consulting them about their wishes.
