In black and white Spain, José Luis and his guitar made a fortune with his Gibraltar, español. The lyrics, which Karmele Marchante later rescued in the unexpected musical contests of Save me (RIP), it read “Gibraltar, Gibraltar, great tip of all Spanish.” That hit of Franco’s regime served for months, a few years ago, to liven up Telecinco afternoons before an audience that knew little or almost nothing about daily life around the last colony left standing in all of Europe.
Because the common thing is that, as one moves away from the Gate, it is easier to formulate these identity proclamations without much consideration. But reality, as almost always, has nuances.
This Friday, Fabian Picardochief minister of the British colony, has sat down for the first time with the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, and with his British counterpart, David Cameronas well as the vice president of the European Commission and in charge of relations with London, Maroš Šefčovič.
Vans measure economic activity for the region
“If one arrives at seven in the morning on any given day and you stand at the border”, right where the monument to the cross-border worker designed by Nacho Falgueras stands, “you will see a very long line of cars and vans that enter the Rock daily; That is where we measure what we talk about when we talk about what Gibraltar means to the economy of the region,” he explains. Manuel Triano, secretary of the Transborder Group that in recent years has tried to reconcile the positions of both sides.
“Plumbers, carpenters, deliverers of fresh products from food companies in the region… their economy depends on Gibraltar”
“If it is already difficult to reach an agreement between employers and unions, imagine doing it with employers and unions from both territories,” assesses the general secretary of CCOO in Campo de Gibraltar.
All those cars, with waits that depending on the day can last hours, are the 15,400 thousand workers that pass dailyfrom La Línea de la Concepción, that straight line that separates two countries that, since the Brexit that was voted on February 1, 2020, no longer belong to the same club, that of the European Union.
In addition, of cross-border workers, of them 10,400 are Spanish, there are all those self-employed workers and employees of SMEs who, daily, participate in the economy of the Rock: “Plumbers, carpenters, deliverers of fresh products from food companies in the region… The purchasing power of Gibraltar is high, if this agreement is closed falsely, not only will those who work within the colony be unemployed, but it directly affects the economy of those companies that eat of the Peñón,” reasons Triano.
Since the referendum that Cameron motivated (paradoxically, who today wants to solve that labyrinth in which he has plunged his colony), what there is is a limbo situation that lasts forever.
“Businessmen in Gibraltar, instead of long-term contracts, have opted for temporary contracts because legal doubts do not provide security, quite the opposite”
Workers “they live in uncertainty“, resume Juan José Uceda, representative of the Association of Cross-Border Workers which brought together the voices of all those with a valid employment contract in Gibraltar as of December 31, 2020. “Employers in Gibraltar, instead of long-term contracts, have opted more for temporary contracts because legal doubts , noise does not provide security for contracts, quite the opposite”.
Hospitality, shops, construction, Spanish labor in the Peñón
Uceda, for years purchasing director of some construction companies in La Roca, has spent years demanding labor rights for all Spaniards, retired or active, who have contributed over time to the buoyant economy of La Roca.
Currently, the tasks carried out by Spaniards, 85% of whom are from Linares, are jobs mainly in the hospitality and commerce, that turn this territory from less than 7 square kilometers in one of the most picturesque, rare and unique tourist attractions in southern Europe.
There is also that whole group of employees in the care and construction sector, who without job opportunities in the region, find a salary in the activity of the Rock. Construction, for example, is a very active sector in an isthmus that grows and grows artificially over the sea to incorporate more land into a colony whose problem is space.
Appearance presented by one of the main streets of Gibraltar this Friday in which the United Kingdom and Spain meet in Brussels to reach an agreement on the rock. / EFE
Then there are all those professionals from the finance that make Gibraltar a territory that is always controversial in fiscal matters and, finally, the gaming It is the latest market niche where La Roca has found business.
Because if there is one thing that Gibraltarians know how to do well, it is business.
El Peñon voted massively against Brexit
That’s why, when the United Kingdom voted in favor of Brexitthe Gibraltarians They voted massively against their metropolis. They wanted to be Gibraltarians, British but also Europeans from this square in the south of southern Europe.
Maintaining a border between two European countries was enough of an inconvenience to have a fence being a country outside the European Union.
That is the important issue of the negotiation this Friday. Once again, the meeting, held this time in Brussels, ended with good words but without agreement. Although the parties say that “it is already close.”
The intention is that this fence and all the flaws of the agreement with the United Kingdom, which the European Commission is mediating, will be resolved before the European elections.
From the workers’ sphere they sing a unanimous “hopefully.”
The mayor of La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz), Juan Franco, and the chief minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo, hug in front of the gate of Gibraltar and Spain in an act with which the Cadiz town and the British colony close the events they have organized to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the closing of the gate. / EFE
Asked about this matter by The Andalusian Post Office, of the Prensa Ibérica group, Juan Franco, mayor of La Línea, a resident of Gibraltar, and the main witness of how uncertainty grips the local economy in fits and starts, prefers not to make statements.
As mayor, with an epic majority (22 of 25 councilors) from an independent party, the complicated social reality of La Línea since 2015 and having to face the stigma of drug trafficking, Franco is not up for more promises.
One of those promises was that of the 112 measures of the Andalusian Program of Preparation and Contingency Measures for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, presented by the Junta de Andalucía in April 2020, one year after Juan Manuel Moreno arrived at the Andalusian Government.
Over time, that’s what it looked like: smoke. Four years later, that plan “has come to nothing,” says Triano.
The economy of Campo de Gibraltar, dependent on the Rock
In a land always lacking in investments and commitments from the administrations, which The economy of Campo de Gibraltar depends on the Rock In a very high percentage it is as evident as that the Llanitos, the formula by which this town is also called, do not even remotely want to be Spanish since the English achieved this Rock in 1703. Although the spanglish that is spoken in this land has the sound of a Cádiz accent.
In 1967, Gibraltarians voted en masse to remain a colony. and, therefore, deny Spanish sovereignty. Two years later, Francisco Franco locked the gate to the Gate, in an operation that lasted 13 years and left wounds that still persist. As compensation for the massive emigration that began then, the government of the dictatorship decided to build industries in the area. The first was Acerinox, which has been demanding labor improvements for two months and has taken its cry to the Parliament of Andalusia this week.
“If Acerinox falls and Gibraltar is not resolved, what future is there for this region? Will all the young people from here emigrate like what happened to me?
“If Acerinox falls and Gibraltar is not resolved, what future remains for this region?Are all the young people leaving here like what happened to me? explains to this newspaper Manuel, a resident of Algeciras, now in his eighties, who, like many others of his generation, emigrated to France in the 60s.
In the negotiation that has brought Albares to Brussels is the problem of the airport, which will be guarded by Frontex, the management of the border, issues that receive less focus such as the tobacco trade or environmental policy in the Bahia, but also the rights of workers.
Uceda lists some: the cpension work -“barely a third is what a Spaniard who worked 100% of his hours in Gibraltar earns than what a Gibraltarian earns”, the lack of coverage for sick leave of a cross-border worker, “who is unprotected in Spain”, or double contributions are issues that, he assesses, “are being addressed.”
Fringe all of them that are still alive in an agreement that is cherished in diplomacy and longed for around the Fence.
2024-04-13 06:33:35
#living #uncertainty #Brexit
