Spanish Popular Party MP Jose Ignacio Landaluce marked the 25th anniversary of the reopening of the border yesterday by repeating his call for the tripartite forum to be opened up to representation from municipal authorities in the Campo de Gibraltar.

He said the Campo should also have a voice within the forum’s discussions.

“Close proximity, as happens in any relationship, means we are best placed to decide what is beneficial to both sides,” he said.

 

“For the past 25 years, both sides have been a little less separated, but we must not forget that differences exist which, while not insurmountable, are making agreements difficult.”

The PP politician said it was important to continue working to improve relations between Gibraltar and Spain and to develop joint initiatives for the good of communities on either side of the frontier fence.

But he also noted recent tensions in those relations and said Spain – “and more specifically, in its foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos” – had become Gibraltar’s best ally when it came to defending the Rock’s interests.

“Those interests are centred on achieving a self-determination that would only make bigger the space that separates us,” Sr Landaluce said.

He added that the PP would never renounce Spain’s claim over Gibraltar and its waters and warned that recent tensions, unless checked, could threaten to become a bigger frontier in relations between the Rock and Madrid than the one that existed until 1985.