Ruiz Boix says PP is ‘sowing discord’ on Gibraltar

The Mayor of San Roque and PSOE’s General Secretary for Cadiz has accused the Spanish Partido Popular of “returning to its old ways of sowing discord” in relation to Gibraltar.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix responded to the PP manifesto published earlier this week while also questioning the stance taken by the mayor of Algeciras, Jose Ignacio Landaluce.

The PP manifesto maintained Spain’s longstanding position on Gibraltar of a desire to re-engage with the UK on sovereignty talks, a common position on both sides of the political spectrum in Madrid.

It is a position tabled every year at the UN and rebutted by both the UK and Gibraltar, who say only the Gibraltarians have the right to determine their own future.

“We will resume a responsible dialogue with the British government to address the process of decolonisation of Gibraltar and the recovery of sovereignty, in accordance with the doctrine established by the United Nations,” the PP manifesto said.

Furthermore on Brexit the PP said: “We will tackle the situation that has arisen after Brexit, defending Spanish interests in fiscal, financial, environmental, and security matters, and we will pay special attention to the movement of people.”

In his statement, Mr Ruiz Boix rebuked the PP for “trying to break the good relations that exist between the Campo and Gibraltar”.

He said the PP had “returned to a position of three centuries ago to a policy of confrontation, a policy of tension and a policy in which dialogue, consensus, agreement and the goal of a joint solution between the Campo and Gibraltar in not in line with what exists on the negotiating table between Spain, the UK and Gibraltar”.

“It seems that the interests of [PP leader] Alberto Núñez Feijóo is imposed by these retrograde policies of the Popular Party headed by the Foreign Minister, García Margallo and it seems that this position imposed by his possible Vox government partners is the one that is also imposed in the Popular Party,” Mr Ruiz Boix said.

“There is a pursuit for confrontation and tension and to destroy the good relations that exist at the level of neighbours, family life and also to share employment, to share the economy and the many positive aspects that unite the neighbours of Gibraltar and Campo de Gibraltar.”

Mr Ruiz Boix accused Mr Nuñez Feijóo’s stance and said it was a position endorsed by Vox and “nothing more than a return to a past of Franco’s politics” during the closed frontier days.

He said the manifesto commitments on Gibraltar “talk only of the flag”, and not about the issues that matter to Campo residents such has the economy, employment and good neighbourly relations across the border.

He underscored the need for the “zone of shared prosperity” to emerge from the treaty negotiations.
Mr Ruiz Boix also accused Mr Landaluce of highlighting commitments from some 20 to 30 years ago for Campo infrastructure.

“In the next few days we will see him again with the Spanish flag, in this case to join his potential Vox partners and ask that we go back three centuries and that Gibraltar be Spanish and not the good neighbourly relations, coexistence and the social and economic relations that they also exist between Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar region,” Mr Ruiz Boix said.

Mr Landaluce was accused of “sowing tension and confrontation” with Gibraltar rather than focusing on a positive relationship that can benefit from a shared prosperity zone.