The Junta de Andalucia has distanced itself from Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel García Margallo’s joint sovereignty proposal for Gibraltar. Miguel Angel Vasquez says now is not the time to use inflammatory rhetoric or to talk about joint sovereignty.
Manuel Chaves, the PSOE (Socialist opposition party) MP and former president of the Junta de Andalucia, has said Spain’s policy on Gibraltar “is going nowhere” because Gibraltarians are the ones who will decide their own future.
The Junta de Andalucia must have an equal status to Gibraltar in any UK/Spain talks in which the British Overseas Territory participates, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo declared at a press conference following a meeting with Junta president Susana Diaz.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he hopes for dialogue with Britain soon regarding Gibraltar, but added that until talks take place his government would continue to consider unilateral measures to defend Spanish interests. He said the country will take “all legal measures” to protect its interests in Gibraltar.