Do Spanish politicians have any respect for international laws?

Do Spanish politicians have any respect for international laws? Ask any Gibraltarian like myself and the emphatic answer is a rotund NO! But where does one start?

They renege on international Treaties, Conventions, Agreements, violate European Laws etc., the list is just too long to mention all that is being breached. We constantly ask ourselves, what is so wrong with the education system in Spain? What problem do Spanish politicians have in understanding three very simple words in the Treaty of Utrecht like “Ceded in Perpetuity”?

The risible thing is that the Treaty of Utrecht was a “Peace and Friendship” treaty (!!!) when Gibraltar was ceded and exchanged for other territories. I repeat a “Peace and Friendship” treaty that was meant to bring an end to hostilities!!!

So how is it possible for successive Spanish governments to persist in defying the treaty by disputing the sovereignty of Gibraltar? What dispute one might ask? Has Spain respected that treaty?

You only have to see the modern day siege of obstructing the flow of the frontier with the sole purpose of stifling Gibraltar’s economy, and the daily incursions into British Gibraltar Territorial Waters that have intensified, to proportions worse than during the “reign” of the much beloved of the Partido Popular, that anti-democrat Franco!

We are also subjected to the most extreme insults and abuses in the Spanish media, and also by the followers of the ruling party with their campaign of hate and lies of all that concerns Gibraltar. They also dispute the sovereignty of Gibraltar waters in their quixotic quest. All territories INCLUDING GIBRALTAR have territorial waters. So since Gibraltar has been and continues to be British, what conclusion would anyone with a modicum of common sense and logic arrive at other than that the waters are also British?

However if anyone were to have any difficulty in comprehending the simplicity of that fact, Spain signed the United Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) and in doing so accepted that Gibraltar waters ARE British. Another Convention the Spanish government is unable to assimilate. 

More recently there was the Cordoba Agreement in 2006 where the Government of Gibraltar spent around 80M euros on an airport, and Spain was required to carry out infrastructural works on their side. Have they complied? A rather stupid question I have to admit. Obviously not, and they have the effrontery to say that it cost Spain dearly contributing to the cost of the building of the airport!!! Not one cent have they expended on ANYTHING AT ALL in that Agreement.

The United Kingdom also paid around £28M (and are still paying!!) to Spanish pensioners, for a scheme that had the most negligible of amounts into which Spanish pensioners at the time had contributed before the closure of the frontier. As always they extracted monies from everyone and got an extremely over generous deal.

Other agreements reached included flow of traffic at the frontier. Have they respected that? Another stupid question once again. No, they have not. What do they do instead? Renege on almost every single part of that agreement after pocketing all the benefits and blatantly continue to use the frontier to blockade Gibraltar and hold European citizens hostages in a queue to feed their obsession with Gibraltar.

For a government that evicts its people from their homes contrary to a European ruling, they also ignore EU laws. Not surprising considering Spain's track record. A law unto themselves. What hope can Spain ever have of gaining any respect in the international community when they flout all and any laws. Have they not become the pure example of the definition of a rogue nation. No respect for international laws, no respect for human rights, no respect for other states, no respect for the essence of what the EU and other civilized nations promulgate - peace and security.

Do Spanish politicians know what democracy is, have they not heard that Hitler and Franco died many years ago, and why are they so afraid of putting their case before the International Court of Justice? What case you may ask?!

Isabella Caruana