NATIONAL Day celebrations will be postponed for another year after the death of Queen Elizabeth II this week, Chief Minister of Gibraltar Fabian Picardo announced live on TV.
Instead, the screens on-stage at Casemates Square will stream the September 10 First Proclamation of King Charles III in front of the Ascension Council.
The Casemates stage will remain for the 73-year-old’s televised public proclamation as Queen Elizabeth’s son in Sandwell on September 11.
Picardo said Friday was ‘the eve of our saddest National Day’ in his televised broadcast, which he tweeted in its entirety.
It came as the Royal Gibraltar Regiment fired a 96-gun salute on Friday.
The local leader spoke of the ‘cloud of sorrow’ over the Rock at the death of the monarch and continued to eulogise Queen Elizabeth II in a lengthy address.
“In reflecting for Gibraltar on Queen Elizabeth’s lifetime of service, I think we must reflect on the fact that She was the queen of all our constitutions to date,” the Chief Minister said.
“As our Queen, she was the head of our Executive and we were expressly one of Her dominions.”
He urged the public ‘to enjoy the day tomorrow with your family and friends, tinged with sadness as it will be, commemorating the great memory of our former sovereign’.
Flags will fly at full-mast on Sunday and return to half-mast on Monday for the Queen’s funeral.
READ MORE:
- Leading Gibraltar public figures salute Queen Elizabeth II after her death, cancel National Day
- ROYAL CRISIS: National Day concern for Gibraltar as Queen’s health deteriorates
- Gibraltar ministers meet with UK Foreign Secretary and Minister for Europe in London
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