What do Gibraltarians want?
Gibraltar as a territorial dispute has many issues at stake.
Potentially, many remedies could apply. The previous posts presented brief
background information and a few views that included references to law and
politics, the European Union, NATO, natural resources, defense, and many
others.
Post
31: Territorial disputes: Gibraltar (Part 1)
Post
32: Territorial disputes: Gibraltar (Part 2)
Today’s post centers the attention of one of these parties: people. What do Gibraltarians want?
Several
documents give us a clear idea of what Gibraltarians want. The 1967 and 2002
referendums made evident Gibraltarians want to remain under British
sovereignty. Yet, in 2016, the Gibraltarians made explicit their wishes to
remain in the European Union. Information about each of these cases below.
The 2002 Referendum in Gibraltar
The question:
"On the 12th July 2002 the
Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, in a formal statement in the House of Commons,
said that after twelve months of negotiation the British Government and Spain
are in broad agreement on many of the principles that should underpin a lasting
settlement of Spain's sovereignty claim, which included the principle that
Britain and Spain should share sovereignty over Gibraltar.
Do you approve of the principle that Britain and Spain should share
sovereignty over Gibraltar?
YES/NO”
The
results: the no vote was 98.9 percent, with 17,900 no ballots
cast, 187 yes votes and 72 blank votes.
Document
available at:
The 1967 Referendum in Gibraltar
Gibraltarians
had two choices:
“(a) To pass under Spanish sovereignty in accordance with the terms
proposed by the Spanish Government to Her Majesty's Government on 18 May 1966;
or
(b) Voluntarily retain their link
with Britain, with democratic local institutions and with Britain retaining its
present responsibilities.”
The
results: turnout of 95.8%, 12,237
cast their vote, of which 12,138 voted for Britain and only 44 for Spain, with
55 spoiled ballot papers.
More information available at
Brexit and the 2016 Referendum in
Gibraltar
On 23 June
2016, people across the United Kingdom and Gibraltar voted in a referendum on
the UK’s membership of the European Union. Gibraltar was
included in the South West electoral region.
The question:
“Should the United Kingdom remain a
member of the European Union or leave the European Union?
Remain a
member of the European Union
Leave the
European Union”
The
results:
- Remain: 19,322
- Leave: 823
- Electorate: 24,119
- Verified Ballot Papers: 20,172
- Turnout: 83.7%
- Ballot Papers Counted : 20,172
- Valid Votes: 20,145
- Rejected Ballots: 27
More
information at
Complete results available at
Details about the EU Referendum question available at
With this
in mind, and to conclude today’s post, Augusto Conte de los Ríos writes in 2017
(my translation):
“For now it is early to know what the future will bring, but the first movements,
as in chess, are decisive, and Spain has begun to move the pawns. The draft guidelines
for negotiation between the EU and the United Kingdom referred by Donald Tusk (note
25 in the original) not only ignored completely the possibility that
Gibraltar had a special, unique status in the future,
as requested by Fabián Picardo, but that the European Council gives, de facto,
veto power over the future of the Rock to Spain (Brzenczek, 2016).”
Complete article (in
Spanish) available at
NOTE:
This post is based on Jorge Emilio Núñez, “Territorial Disputes and State
Sovereignty: International Law and Politics,” London and New York: Routledge,
Taylor and Francis Group, 2020 (forthcoming)
Previous
published research monograph about territorial disputes and sovereignty by the
author, Jorge Emilio Núñez, “Sovereignty Conflicts and International Law and
Politics: A Distributive Justice Issue,” London and New York: Routledge, Taylor
and Francis Group, 2017.
NEXT
POST: Gibraltar, same facts interpreted differently by the media
Wednesday 06th November 2019
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @London1701
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