'Gibraltar will never be Spanish', and Spain knows it

Gibraltar National Day celebrations

MADRID (Gibraltar Chronicle) A Spanish law professor and former advisor to the Spanish Government said Madrid had privately accepted Gibraltar would never be Spanish but should now do so openly. In a wide-ranging interview with Europa Sur, Luis Pérez-Prat Durban, dean of the law faculty at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville, said the Spanish sovereignty could not condition Gibraltar’s right to self-determination. Asked if Spanish foreign policy had accepted that Gibraltar would never be Spanish, he replied:>>>“I think that, formally, it will never accept that, but I also believe that internally, it already has.”

“It is no longer possible to ignore the opinion of the Gibraltarians,” Sr Pérez-Prat added.

The law professor said international law supported the right to self-determination and that the people of Gibraltar should be free to choose their own future, regardless of Spain’s claim.

“This, obviously, is not the official Spanish position, but it is the more realistic one and should be openly adopted,” he said.

“After that, the future should be a joint one,” cooperating on everything from the war on drugs to environmental protection.

Pérez-Prat in the past advised the PSOE government of Felipe González and the PP government of José María Aznar.