MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands lawmaker reaffirms self determination and questions Argentina's claim

MLA Pollard highlighted the democratic tradition of the Falklands. “2023 was the tenth anniversary of the referendum with a turnout of 92% and the 99,8% vote to remain a British Overseas Territory”

Falkland Islands elected member of the Legislative Assembly, Mark Pollard speaking with the UK media insisted on the Islands' people right to self determination and even questioned that the Falklands ever belonged to Argentina.

The dispute over the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty claim again resurfaced in Argentina, where president elect Javier Milei proposed a new approach to the dispute, (a Hong Kong type solution), which left no one satisfied.

The Argentines who are brain washed from early school that the Malvinas undisputedly belong to their country; the UK government which considers the issue 'was decisively settled some time ago', with the defeat of a military invasion and most importantly a referendum when the overwhelming majority of Islanders in a democratic referendum preferred to remain as an Overseas Territory, and the Islanders themselves who have been living in the archipelago for generations, even before Argentina existed, and trust the UN charter acknowledging their people's right to self determination and to decide on their future.

Nevertheless MLA Pollard did welcome the next Argentine president's acknowledgment of the Islands' people. “It's actually refreshing to see an Argentine president saying the position of the Falkland Islands people cannot be ignored, which is quite a different stance to what we've heard before,” from different Argentine governments.

And in historic terms, MLA Pollard said that “returning the Falklands to Argentina, I think we would certainly dispute that the Falklands never belonged to Argentina in the first place”

He added, “I think we could get bogged down all too often in who had a claim 200 years ago and who didn't, before Argentina was even a country on its own.”

MLA Pollard also highlighted the democratic tradition of the Falklands. “2023 was the tenth anniversary of the referendum with a turnout of 92% and the 99,8% vote to remain a British Overseas Territory”. In other words, “not even do you want to be British or Argentine, but rather do you want to remain a British Overseas Territory?”

A clear confirmation that, “we believe in our right to self determination and we believe we are British and we want to remain British”.

Finally a clear message to the next Argentine government, “in order to get support from our people, we need to see some commitment to pull back some of the sanctions Argentine governments imposed on the Falklands, that is the many economic and social sanctions they've been imposing for many, many years”.