Fabian Picardo, Chief Minister of Gibraltar
On Thursday we mark fifty-nine years since the day our forefathers went to the polls and told the world that only we THE GIBRALTARIANS will decide the future of our Rock.
They did not vote in comfort. They voted with a dictator in Spain waiting to punish them for having the courage to do the right thing. Vote with their hearts and minds for what they believed to be the best for their children.
They took a pencil. They made a cross on a ballot paper.
And they did it knowing, full well, that life was about to get harder. They stuck to principle in the face of threats.
Everything I have done as your Chief Minister, every negotiation I have sat through, every long night in Brussels, Madrid, London and New York, has been in the service of that decision.
The decision taken by ordinary Gibraltarians in 1967 who had far less than we have and defended it far more bravely than we have ever been asked to.
A decision more recent generations confirmed in 2002.
This will be the last National Day that I address you as your Chief Minister. I am not going to pretend that it is easy to write those words. I have proudly led this nation for fifteen years. Furthermore, I re-instated the Casemates events and have stood on the stage in good years and in very hard ones. In every one of those years, the same thing has happened. I have looked out at a square full of red and white and I have remembered why representing you was never a burden.
When the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, most of us had voted to remain. It was not our decision to leave, but it became our problem. That problem has consumed a decade of this Government’s time.
I said at the time that I would not bring back a deal unless it was safe, secure and beneficial for Gibraltar. I said that not one grain of our land, not one drop of our water and not one breath of our air would be conceded. Some people did not believe me. Some people said it could not be done, that we would have to give something away in the end. They said that the price of fluidity at that frontier would be paid in sovereignty.
They were wrong.
The Treaty signed on 14 July, and applied provisionally since the day after, delivers fluidity at our frontier and legal certainty for our economy.
It does so without a single concession on our EXCLUSIVELY BRITISH sovereignty.
Spain and Gibraltar, together with the European Union and the United Kingdom have ALL sat down at a table TOGETHER to negotiate a Treaty that works for everyone.
Consider what that means and, importantly, consider what our forefathers would have made of it.
They would be very proud indeed of a Gibraltar representing itself at the highest table of international diplomacy and delivering the objectives we had set out to achieve.
I want to thank the Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Joseph Garcia, and Attorney General Michael Llamas KC who have both been at my side in every one of those rooms, as well as every member of the negotiating team who gave years of their lives to this. I also want to thank Sir Joe Bossano, who taught me and taught this whole community what self-determination actually requires of a people. A further thank you from all of us to Forti Azopardi of the SDGG for the works delivering the Fair and the Casemates events and to the SDGG Chair, Richard Buttigieg.
Above all I want to thank you all for the way you have conducted yourselves through years that would have fractured a less serious community. When the frontier queues were long, you queued or stayed at home. When the uncertainty was worse, you carried on opening businesses and getting on with work. You gave me something to take into every negotiation that no legal argument could have given me – the Gibraltar that plainly, obviously, unshakeably knows what it wants and what it will never accept.
There is a great deal still to do. There always is.
Next month I will travel to New York to address the Fourth Committee of the United Nations as your Chief Minister for the very last time. We must keep making our case both at the C24 and the Fourth Committee every year until Gibraltar is finally taken off the list of non-self-governing territories.
This year, I will make that argument one final time, and I will make it as forcefully as I ever have.
There will soon be another Chief Minister, and many more after that. Each of them will stand where I have stood and say what I have said. That is the point of us.
We have outlasted sieges, dictators, closed frontiers, and the confident predictions of people who have never set foot here.
We will outlast whatever comes next.
Because the soil of Gibraltar shall belong to no one but the people of Gibraltar.
Wear your red and white on Thursday with pride.
Take your children to Casemates and tell them what happened in 1967.
Sing the anthem loud and proud.
I will.
This year and every year, until my dying breath.
Have a very Happy National Day, Gibraltar.
Keith Azopardi, Leader of the Opposition
National Day is a day of reflection of the past and of hope for the future. A day where dressing in red and white is not just about identity but about our collective free expression of our will and of our rights. It is a statement of intent for the future as well as a reaffirmation of generations past. And in immersing ourselves in our history and celebrations it is also a moment to think of those in our community who need a better future. It is a time to look ahead with hope and expectation to the Gibraltar we can create.
As we gather to enjoy another National Day it is also important to reflect on the year past and tell it how it is. While we hope for the future and are confident that changes can radically improve the lives of all our people there is no hiding that the last 12 months have seen a string of political and economic issues that have rocked Gibraltar. Those have not gone away and emphasised the urgency of acting decisively in numbers at the next election.
This is the first National Day since the conclusion of the EU Treaty. It has been a long time in coming. We are more than a decade from the BREXIT Referendum. The negotiations on the Treaty were as much about our economic sustainability as our political rights.
The Treaty is far from perfect bringing challenges as well as opportunities and does not provide an absolute guarantee of certainty for the future. The arrangements are underpinned by a Concordat with the UK that we consider falls short of expectations and we would pledge to improve in negotiations with the UK Government.
The GSLP Government will tell you everything is rosy on the Treaty front but the consultation of the business community in the run up to it was poor and the first few weeks after provisional application of the Treaty was a shambles. The uncertain future economic pressures are matched by security and immigration challenges as we saw just the other day when a Guardia Civil vessel entered our port.
READ MORE: Reform UK MP calls for Gibraltar to get its own Westminster seat ahead of National Day celebrations
Despite that, if all goes well, the Treaty can hopefully bring better prospects for our citizens, greater freedoms, more stability and long-term wealth for Gibraltar. We will work hard to make this Treaty work for you. We must also ensure that our separate identity as a people is protected. That requires a clear plan for the future which we do not believe the GSLP have. That must be clear given the lack of preparation at different stages over the last 10 years and the failure to get ahead of the curve by investing in our product and infrastructure. There really can be no excuse for the fact that La Linea seems frenetic in their endeavour to create new infrastructure and commercial opportunities while our own Government who had the advantage of negotiating the Treaty and therefore prepare with advance notice seem lethargic by comparison.
We are told that this will be Mr Picardo’s last National Day as Chief Minister and he will soon pass on the baton to his chosen successor who will likely become GSLP Leader without a contest. That will simply deliver more of the same. At least that will be the sign that we will be closer still to the next general election. That will provide you with an opportunity to speak loudly in the growing clamour for change. We will be working hard for you in the months ahead to ensure that when that moment comes we deliver what you need. On behalf of all my colleagues, our families and myself I wish you all a happy National Day.
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