<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, Fabián Picardo, assured the UN Decolonization Committee on Tuesday that the Rock “will never renounce the inalienable right of Gibraltarians” to self-determination, and Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares asserted in the Senate that Spain “will never renounce” Gibraltar’s sovereignty.</strong></h4> During his address to the United Nations Decolonization Committee (Committee of 24), Picardo insisted that Gibraltar will “never” renounce the “inalienable right of Gibraltarians to determine their own future within the internationally recognized borders of our territory,” because “it has legal and moral priority over any claim that our neighbor (Spain) might improperly make.” “We will never renounce it. We will never throw in the towel,” stated the Chief Minister, who also warned that “the entire territory” of Gibraltar (“isthmus and waters included”) must “remain intact during the decolonization process” because “any attempt to interfere with our territorial integrity is expressly prohibited” by international law. According to Picardo, the General Assembly resolutions “from the 1960s” cited by Spain to claim sovereignty over the Rock “have their origins in claims to Gibraltar at a time when Spain was not a democracy.” “I welcome the excellent approach of the current Spanish Government regarding the recognition of Franco as a brutal dictator,” but “I am saddened that they continue to rely here on the useless resolutions he pursued,” he stated. The Chief Minister also highlighted the importance of the recent agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom on the future of the Rock after Brexit, which will contribute to creating a “new and more positive” relationship with Spain “without prejudice to our respective positions on sovereignty.” “Leaving aside and without touching on the issue of sovereignty, we believe we can see a new partnership for the prosperity of our people,” he added. Specifically, both the agreement and its implications for sovereignty were the subject of an appearance by José Manuel Albares before the Senate this Tuesday, in which he had to respond to the accusations of Vox senator Ángel Pelayo Gordillo, who warned that “any agreement that does not contemplate the full reintegration of that territory under Spanish sovereignty is illegal, illegitimate, unjust, or at least should be so for a Spanish government worthy of the name.” In his response, the minister asserted that “the political agreement reached in no way undermines Spain's claim to sovereignty over Gibraltar.” “We do not renounce it and we will never renounce it,” he proclaimed.
