I love the UK but I'm fed up with Brexit, says Gibraltar chief minister

Fabian Picardo is running for his fourth and final term in office. Photo: Jack Taylor/Getty Images Europe

Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar's chief minister, says he loves Britain but is «tooth-tired about Brexit and its consequences.»

Thanks to the Northern Ireland protocol agreed by Britain and the European Union earlier this year, the Rock now finds itself isolated as the last British territory left without an agreement clarifying its future relationship with the EU and neighboring Spain.

In conversation with The Sunday Telegraph In the Cabinet Office inside Gibraltar's government building, where a framed fragment of the EU flag with a star recalls the «somber moment» when the banner was lowered from a border post on January 31, 2020, Mr Picardo said: The people of Britain have done a disservice to the people of Gibraltar. by voting to leave the EU.»

“I love the UK, but Gibraltarians are fed up with Brexit,” said the leader of Gibraltar, where 96 percent of people voted to remain in a 2016 referendum.

Spain is now letting a no-deal situation slide into nothingness and allows the 15,000 people who enter Gibraltar every day from the Spanish side to do so with relative ease, which is critical to the functioning of the Gibraltar economy.

“We are not Brexiteers”

Mr Picardo, who is currently running to lead the centre-left GSLP party for re-election to his fourth and what he said will be his final term in office, said the parties were on the verge of an agreement before Pedro Sanchez in the spring. , Spain's prime minister, called early elections and left negotiations in limbo.

He told his cabinet to be ready for an announcement at the end of August.

Asked whether he feared sovereignty compromises such as those in the Northern Ireland agreement, he said: “We are not Brexiteers; We do not accept that the application of an EU rule in any way violates our sovereignty, as long as we have the right to determine whether that rule should continue to be applied in the future.»

He welcomed the improvement in relations between London and Brussels under the leadership of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, saying: “The strongest relationship between the UK and the EU is the best for Gibraltar.”

Mr Picardo says this framework agreement remains the agreement in principle reached on New Year's Eve 2020, which will make Gibraltar «effectively a common tourist area with Spain» as part of the Schengen area.

He said there is still There can be no question of “Spanish boots” being present when carrying out such a transaction.

“We understand that only the Schengen state can be responsible for allowing entry and exit to Schengen. It must also be understood that only Gibraltar can determine who enters Gibraltar and who does not.”

The agreement provides for the creation of a joint operational facility that will be located on both sides of the border. “This will allow Gibraltar law enforcement and immigration officials to be able to enter Spain, and Spanish officials will be able to enter Gibraltar.”

“Sovereignty is not on the agenda.”

On whether Spain would see a new, more nationalist right-wing government after July's inconclusive elections, and the possibility of new elections in the country, Mr Picardo said any Madrid government would meet the same determination with Gibraltar.< /p>< p>“Whoever is in power in Spain must understand that sovereignty is not on the agenda: we will not give up a single drop of our water, not a single breath of our air, not a single grain of sand from our land.”< /p>

He also said he was confident that a future Labor government under Keir Starmer would also firmly support Gibraltar, describing the Blair government's shared sovereignty negotiations and the 1984 Brussels Agreement paving the way for negotiations with Spain over the territory as «shameful» episodes another era.

“Both the red and blue teams were as bad as each other, but the current red and blue teams are committed to the sovereignty of Gibraltar.”

Moving on to Spain, Mr. Picardo deplored the recent row over football director Luis Rubiales' initial refusal to resign after he forcibly kissed one of the country's players following the World Cup victory over England.

“The final was such an exhibition women's game and it was such a shame to see Spain's success on the world stage overshadowed by what happened minutes after they lifted the cup,» the Chief Minister said.

«I'm very pleased to see that attitudes are changing and Spain is taking a position that none of us, in Gibraltar or Britain, would accept.”