The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, yesterday expressed his hope that the United Kingdom will soon have a new Prime Minister, following the recent resignation of Liz Truss, in order to “return to work normally” and that the dialogue on Gibraltar and the “zone of shared prosperity” can be “resumed”.
“Despite the Brexit, the United Kingdom remains a very important partner for the European Union and for Spain,” said the minister during a colloquium organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Seville. Apart from that, he continued, “the United Kingdom remains a very important partner within NATO” in these times of “challenge” because of the “Russian aggression”.
“We are at a time when we all need stability” and, therefore, it is necessary that the “British friends” appoint “quickly” a new “prime minister” so that “the British government can return to work normally” and the United Kingdom “returns to being a partner of the first order that we need,” he said.
As for how the British political crisis may affect the process of dialogue with the UK on the future of Gibraltar, Albares recalled that he himself was “a few days ago in Oxford” with his “new colleague in Foreign Affairs”, James Cleverly, “to move forward”. The dialogue is “very advanced” and the Spanish government “has the will to reach a concrete agreement”, convinced of the need to “continue advancing in this area of shared prosperity”, but for this it is necessary that the United Kingdom has a new prime minister to “resume” that dialogue, he concluded.
Liz Truss, Foreign Minister in the previous government of Boris Johnson and third woman at the head of the British government (after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May), resigned last Thursday after only 44 days in office, which also makes her the Prime Minister with the shortest mandate in the history of the United Kingdom. In a statement in Downing Street, Truss announced that the Conservative Party will elect a new leader in the next week and that she will remain in office until then. The Conservative leader was the last of the fifteen prime ministers of Elizabeth II’s reign, whose last official act was precisely the appointment of Truss on September 6, two days before her death.
