<h6><strong>Luis Ayllón</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Government has not filled the post of special delegate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Campo de Gibraltar for more than nine months, which is vacant due to the appointment of its last holder, Juan José Sanz, as ambassador to Serbia.</strong></h4> The delay in the appointment of a person for a position that acts as a kind of “antenna” for Foreign Affairs for what happens in Gibraltar, is causing surprise in Campo de Gibraltar, and has even been the subject of a series of questions to the Government by the Popular Group in the Senate. In these questions, presented in August, the mayor of Algeciras and president of the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee, <strong>José Ignacio Landaluce</strong> (PP) refers to the position of special delegate of Foreign Affairs in the Campo and director of the Gibraltar Office, pointing out that "both positions are vacant, something completely illogical when we are immersed in a complicated period in terms of negotiations for the treaty that will regulate relations between the colony and the European Union after Brexit." <strong>Landaluce's initial statement is incorrect with regard to the director of the Gibraltar Office</strong>, since that position was filled by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, at the beginning of December last year, with <a href="https://thediplomatinspain.com/en/2023/12/02/jorge-notivoli-will-be-new-head-of-gibraltar-office-after-dismissal-of-benosa/81672/">the appointment of the diplomat Jorge Notivoli</a>, a month after having dismissed the previous director, Javier Benosa, for an article critical of the amnesty law that the Government was planning. However, it is true that the post of special delegate for Campoo de Gibraltar has not been filled since the beginning of January, which means that Foreign Affairs does not have anyone with the capacity to report on the situation on the ground, despite the fact that negotiations between London and Brussels on the future of the British colony after Brexit have already resumed. Landaluce pointed out in his questions for which he requested a written response that “doubts are looming over whether the socialist Executive intends with this situation to prevent there being more direct witnesses in the negotiations related to Gibraltar”. The truth is that Foreign Affairs has not had direct information from that “antenna” for more than nine months on different issues that occurred both in Gibraltar and in the Spanish towns of Campo de Gibraltar. Precisely, Albares has summoned the mayors of Campo de Gibraltar to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 9th. And, according to sources in the region, The Diplomat is planning to meet with what it has described as the “socioeconomic actors” of the area a day later, a term that includes the so-called Transborder Group, made up mostly of Gibraltarian and Spanish organisations, many of which have been maintaining approaches very close to those of the Gibraltarian Government.
