Ruiz Boix accuses PP of threatening Campo stability over treaty

Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix, the Mayor of San Roque and PSOE Senate candidate for Cadiz province in Spain’s November 29 general election, accused the Partido Popular of threatening stability in the Campo de Gibraltar with its stance on the Gibraltar treaty, warning that cross-border workers must not become hostages to electoral tactics.

Writing on X, Mr Ruiz Boix said the PP had “again demonstrated that it does not care” about the region’s future, after its MEP Antonio López-Istúriz warned that a future right-wing government in Madrid would scrutinise the agreement and that “things will change”.

Mr Ruiz Boix was responding to an article in Europa Sur, published on Tuesday after the Chronicle reported Mr López-Istúriz’s intervention in the European Parliament last week.

The PP MEP had said the treaty delivered “nothing favourable” for Spain or the EU and would be “examined thoroughly” if the PP was in government in Madrid after the general election.

He criticised the agreement’s provisions on immigration and drew comparisons with Ceuta, warning of “a massive influx” of immigration through Gibraltar.

Mr Ruiz Boix described the remarks as a threat to reverse the treaty and undermine stability in the Campo.

“Are they really prepared to put walls back up and squeeze the more than 15,000 cross-border workers who cross the frontier every day to earn their living?” he wrote.

“Using fear, equating our border with migration crises and buying into the most reactionary rhetoric of the far right is an act of historic irresponsibility towards the province of Cadiz.”

He said the PSOE in Cadiz defended shared prosperity, fluid movement across the border and the coexistence built by the Spanish Government and the European Union through “rigorous dialogue”.

“We will not allow the PP to use the people of the Campo de Gibraltar as hostages to its electoral manoeuvring,” he said.

“Our region deserves a future, certainty and jobs, not threats or backward steps.”

The Gibraltar treaty is likely to figure in political exchanges in the run-up to Spain’s election, particularly in Cadiz province where, as well as Mr Ruiz Boix at the head of the Senate list, the Socialists have fielded Jose Manuel Albares at the head of the list of candidates for Congress.

As Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Albares was instrumental in negotiating the Gibraltar treaty and has championed it at every opportunity.

But trust in the Socialist-led government of Pedro Sanchez has been battered by consecutive controversies and further undermined by the train crash last week that killed 69 people, the second deadly rail accident this year.

Recent polls point to a PP victory and a comfortable parliamentary majority if it reaches an agreement with the far-right Vox.

Both parties have stated repeatedly that Brexit was a missed opportunity to further Spain’s sovereignty aspirations and that the treaty delivers no benefits for Spain or the EU.

It remains to be seen whether the PP position signals genuine resistance to come in the event of a change of government in Madrid, or is face-saving rhetoric over a deal that benefits not just communities on both sides of the border, but wider UK/EU relations too.

The European Parliament is scheduled to vote on the Gibraltar agreement on December 14, with MEPs asked only to consent or reject its ratification. They cannot propose amendments to the treaty text itself.

Two MEPs asked to prepare a report ahead of that vote - Thijs Reuten from the parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Nina Carberry from the Committee on International Trade - have proposed a draft legislative resolution recommending that MEPs give consent to the treaty.

During a debate on the agreement early in September, numerous political blocs in the European Parliament signalled support for the treaty, particularly in the context of closer ties between the UK and the EU.

They included the largest bloc, the European People’s Party, of which the PP is a member.