The Diplomat
The Chief Minister, the Hon Fabian Picardo QC MP, Mrs Justine Picardo, together with their children, Sebastian, Oliver and Valentina, were received yesterday in a Private Audience by the Pope Francis at the Vatican.
“I was greatly honoured to have time to speak privately with the Holy Father today”, said Picardo through a press release from the Government of Gibraltar. “I presented Pope Francis with the good wishes of the People of Gibraltar and I took a message of best wishes from the Bishop, Monsignor Carmel Zammit, on behalf of the Catholic Church in Gibraltar”, he continued. “I left His Holiness with a gold medal of our Lady of Europe, presented on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar for the People of Gibraltar”, he added.
The audience at the Vatican took place on the eve of the arrival of the Earls of Wessex to Gibraltar to participate in the acts of the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, on the 70th anniversary of the accession to the throne of the British sovereign. The announcement of the arrival of Edward of England, the youngest son of Elizabeth II, accompanied by his wife, caused the Spanish government last week to express to the UK government its displeasure at the visit, which it considered inappropriate at a time when London is negotiating with the European Commission on the future of Gibraltar, after Brexit.
The Spanish protest has had the same null effect as the one raised ten years ago, when the Earls of Wessex made another visit to the Rock on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of the coronation of the Queen.
