MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Spanish police calls for reinforcements to implement tighter controls in Gibraltar border
Garcia-Margallo said that ‘the party is over’ in reference to relations with the Rock Spain’s main police union SUP has expressed concern to the central government that it will need support if its members are required to carry out extensive checks on people entering or leaving the Rock.
In a statement released on Monday they said that they would implement orders but understood that “people queuing for seven hours were going to be angry”.
The union said arrangements need to be made or there would be public disorder issues which the same officers would then be required to deal with.
The release follows on Foreign minister Jose García-Margallo statements in a Sunday interview with the right wing newspaper ABC in which in language not seen since Francisco Franco’s day the minister announced that “the party is over”.
This was understood as a reference to years of softer policy on Gibraltar under his predecessor Miguel Angel Moratinos of the previous Socialist government, PSOE.
Garcia-Margallo said Spain was mulling a 50-Euro border-crossing fee for access to and from the Rock and promised tax investigations of ‘thousands’ of Gibraltarians who own property and reside in Spain.
The move appeared to come as a response to the Spanish Ambassador being called in by the Foreign Office in London on Friday as a fresh set of long but unpredictable queues were being initiated.
Apparently the border controls are in retaliation for Gibraltar dumping seventy concrete blocks to create a natural reef, which among other things will impede furtive Spanish fishing vessels from trawling the disputed waters.
However ecologist group ‘Verdemar Ecologistas en Acción’, Campo spokesman Antonio Muñoz, has described Spain’s protests at the Gibraltar artificial reef as “laughable”. In a statement he said that the reef had no environmental impact and that it was a common practice along all of Spain’s coasts.
“It is done to protect species were dragging is used”, said Antonio Muñoz.
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Read all commentsWell this is the type of job the Guardia Civil are good for, thugs!
Aug 06th, 2013 - 04:28 am 0They are despised by the Spanish people for being aggressive, corrupt and taking back handers when the pull motorists over.
Still, this is a sign of the times for Spain, roll the state of Catalonia.
I'm very hopeful that Catalonia will be free in the next decade. They will free themselves from the dead weight of the rest of Spain to become a thriving country in their own right. They deserve to have their freedom.
Aug 06th, 2013 - 06:07 am 0As for the Guardia Civil at the border, they will have to put up with the fact that no-one in the local community on either side of the border will like them. They will be hated by everyone.
As for the 50 Euro fee, well if Margallo puts that into effect and the EU does nothing, then the UK ought to put a £100 fee on EVERYONE from the EU who comes to Britain.
Next we could arrange for Gibraltar to recruit replacement workers from the unemployed in this country for all the Spanish who can no longer work in Gibraltar. There is space for 10,000 troops in Gibraltar. During WW2, extensive works inside the Rock dug out huge tunnels with accommodation for thousands of troops to defend the Rock from the Spanish or the Germans. If Gibraltar needs fresh workers, then they could be accommodated IN the Rock, until they find a residence.
The UK should take a leaf out of Turkey necks book and Nationalise O2 and Heathrow Airport.
Aug 06th, 2013 - 06:33 am 0Much more effective than sending a few gun boats.
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