Walter Finch
LA LINEA’S mayor has expressed his ‘healthy envy’ of how the UK treats Gibraltar, contrasting it sharply with Spain’s handling of his border town’s challenges.
Juan Franco was angry at how Spain’s finance minister has refused to aid the struggling border town, which is economically dependent on the Rock, amid the uncertainty generated by the stalled talks for a post-Brexit.
He made the pointed comparison with the UK and Gibraltar after Minister Maria Jesus Montero suggested that any special measures for La Linea would have to wait until a Brexit agreement with Gibraltar is reached.
“We see how, unfortunately, our future as a city is once again put below state interests, ignoring the needs of this territory – the only one really affected by what happens in the future [with the Gibraltar deal],” Franco declared on Wednesday.
Among the ideas mooted to boost La Linea’s economy is a special tax regime in the Campo de Gibraltar, similar to the one seen in Ceuta, in order to offset the Rock’s low-tax advantage over its Spanish neighbours.
The mayor branded Montero’s intransigence on considering these ideas as ‘unacceptable’, and revealed that no one had previously mentioned that support for La Linea would depend on securing a Gibraltar deal.
“We’ll have to wait who knows how many more years, after this issue started in 2016,” Franco said, highlighting that nine years have passed since the Brexit vote without a concrete plan for his city.
Montero responded that it is ‘fundamentally in the interests of the government to the eliminate of the fence [border],’ and added that it has been ‘working for a long time on the fiscal part, because the fiscal status in Gibraltar has to be compatible with this opening so that nearby municipalities are not hurt by having a more advantageous tax system in one place than another.”
“Obviously we are working with common sense, because it is not a question of moving the fence from one side to the other and, therefore, the neighbouring municipality having the problem, it is a reality that has a broader aspect.”
The local leader called for urgent action to help La Linea develop its own economy and reduce its dependency on the Rock, stressing the need for both central and regional government support.
Franco challenged the minister to visit La Linea and explain directly to residents why the government ‘won’t implement any measures until an agreement is reached.’
“The lack of sensitivity, inaction, and absence of responses from the state to solve the city’s problems are clearly not on the central government’s agenda,” he added.
The controversy comes as negotiations continue over Gibraltar’s post-Brexit relationship with Spain and the EU, with La Linea caught in the middle as the Spanish town most affected by cross-border issues.
As many as 15,000 workers cross the border into Gibraltar each day, the majority of whom live in the town of 60,000 – around half of the entire working population.
Failure to reach a deal with Gibraltar could see a hard border implemented, leading to huge queues for workers and difficulties for the businesses that employ them.
‘Franco’ against the Socialist government is not really an amazing combination. Juan Franco should instead ask the Government of Andalucia, how La Linea may transfer its economy into a local prospering economy of its own, which makes La Linea independent from workplaces at Gibraltar. It would also be helpfull for the central Spanish government in their negotiations with the UK on Gibraltar, if Spain can threaten the UK with drying out the labour market of Gibraltar. Why i.e. La Linea cannot become a hydrogen hub for future energy supply like Huelva?