The Diplomat
Princess Anne of England entered Gibraltar this Friday from Spanish territory, through the Fence that separates the British colony from La Línea de la Concepción, because the British Airways plane in which she was traveling from London to the Rock had to be diverted to Malaga airport due to fog.
The Spanish Government, which, apparently, has not presented any formal complaint to the United Kingdom about this new visit by Charles III’s sister to Gibraltar, also facilitated her travel by road from Malaga to the Rock. Her arrival was scheduled for three in the afternoon, but the setback meant that she would not arrive in Gibraltar until just before seven in the afternoon. On the same plane was the former British Prime Minister, Theresa May, who participated in the Gibraltar International Literary Festival, of which Anne of England is patron.
The Ministry of the Interior also facilitated the passage through the Fence for the delegation, which was received outside the Gibraltar airfield by the British governor, David Steel, and the chief minister, Fabian Picardo.
The diversion of planes bound for Gibraltar to Malaga, due to bad weather, has been quite frequent in recent times, but it poses some problems, since passengers, coming from a country that is no longer part of the European Union, arrive Schengen territory without the necessary documentation and there is no full guarantee that its final destination will be the Rock.
Anne of England and her husband, Vice Admiral Timothy Lawrence, have traveled to Gibraltar to participate in the International Literary Festival being held these days in the colony. On Friday night they participated in its inauguration and they plan to return to London this Saturday, late in the morning. If the bad weather persisted in the Strait, they would also do so through Malaga.
The visit of Anne of England to Gibraltar is welcomed with enthusiasm by the Gibraltarian authorities, who see the presence of members of the Royal Family as a consolidation of British sovereignty over the territory. On the contrary, it causes discomfort in the Spanish Executive which, however, on this occasion, has decided not to officially express a complaint to London.
This attitude contrasts with that maintained in the last visits of Anne of England to Gibraltar – in 2004, on the occasion of the 300 years of the English presence in the Rock, and, later in 2009 -, in which there were formal protests to London .
In 2009, she participated over three days in various events, one of them the inauguration of the Princess Royal Medical Centre, a hospital named in her honor and built on the isthmus that connects the Rock with the Iberian Peninsula, a territory that Spain does not. ceded to the British Crown by the Treaty of Utrecht, and which the United Kingdom appropriated in the 19th century. This circumstance caused greater discomfort in the Spanish Government, which was then presided over by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and which described the displacement as “inappropriate”, emphasizing that it was something that hurt the sensitivity of the Spanish population.
