José Manuel García-Margallo has revealed that Spain had plotted to use the Brexit referendum result in 2016 to take back Gibraltar. Mr García-Margallo is a former Spanish government minister and a current European Parliament member (MEP).
In an interview La Razon, the fierce advocate for Spanish sovereignty over Gibraltar warned the current Madrid government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, against giving up on “co-sovereignty” of The Rock.
The MEP rued that Spain had failed to seize the “golden opportunity” of Brexit and instead had allowed Gibraltar to become the “Cayman Islands in southern Europe” due to its tax policy.
He slammed Spain and the EU for allowing Gibraltar to have a personal income tax rate and a corporate tax rate half of Spain’s.
Gibraltar has returned to the headlines this summer.
In May, a row broke out over concerns that a planned agreement between then-foreign minister Lord Cameron and the European Union would mean Gibraltar’s border with Spain was British in name only.
The EU had proposed giving EU border guards access to the Rock’s airport.
At the time, the House of Commons’s European Scrutiny Committee (ESC) warned the deal would allow “the pendulum to swing too far in the direction of the EU”. Lord Cameron later backtracked from the agreement plan.
However, discussions have been taking place between the EU and Britain over the management of Gibraltar’s border for months and it remains unclear how the new Labour government will respond to the talks.
He said: “The moment Spain renounces dealing with sovereignty, it is on an extraordinarily dangerous path. When, in addition to renouncing it, it allows a privileged fiscal regime to be perpetuated in the south of the peninsula and guarantees de facto that this regime cannot be changed, in my opinion, it is irrecoverable and represents a surrender of our interests.
“Once this Government has given up the opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity that Brexit gave us to recover sovereignty and has agreed to consolidate a privileged regime, the rest has gone downhill.”
He complained that Madrid only wanted to discuss the presence of the Civil Guard at the border posts of the port and the airport.
The politician said: “They don’t even seem to demand the joint use of the airport, which, it must be remembered, is built on an isthmus that was never ceded by Spain.”
The Gibraltar issue also erupted again in July after Spain beat England in the Euro 2024 football final. During their celebrations, two players, Spain captain Alvaro Morata and team-mate Rodri, chanted ‘Gibraltar is Spanish’ – sparking a furore and a UEFA ban.
Mr García-Margallo defended the two Spanish players, quoting a Spanish president in the 1800s who said: “England cannot be our ally while it possesses Gibraltar.”
He added: “What is surprising is that the British can say that Gibraltar is English and we cannot say that Gibraltar is Spanish.”