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Rajoy supports Mayor's anti-Gibraltar measures
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by PANORAMA reporter
The leader of the Spanish PP party, Mariano Rajoy, says he supports the measures being taken by the mayor of La Linea Alejandro Sanchez, who is also from the PP party.
Rajoy was in the Campo area and Sanchez took this opportunity to meet with his big boss. Also visiting the area was the PP's Andalusian leader Javier Arenas.
Sanchez told Rajoy of the measures he has been taking and those he proposes to take as regards Gibraltar, as well as the outcome of his meeting with the Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.
Sanchez put across what he termed measures in defence of the legitimate interests of La Linea, which include his controversial toll on visitors coming to Gibraltar and his protest march to Algeciras tomorrow, to hand over a communique to the Spanish Government representative there.
Rajoy has givenSanchez his 'maximum support' said reports in La Linea.
TOO BAD
In a Campo tv interview Sanchez said earlier that he wanted good relations with Gibraltar, but if his measures affect Gibraltar it's just too bad.
What people in Gibraltar and in La Linea cannot understand is why he should blame Gibraltar for his inability to make the economy of La Linea work.
PSOE sources in La Linea say the mayor is trying to deviate attention from his problems, which is the serious economic crisis his 'ayuntamiento' is going through - and of which he was well aware before he became mayor.
A PSOE spokesman referred to the mayor trying to convince the public that the toll he proposes would be like those introduced in European cities, saying that the mayor must think that the public are not aware that what he is proposing for the Gibraltar frontier bears no relation to the congestion charges prevalent in other cities to decongest town centres.
What Sanchez wants in the case of the frontier is to interfere with the free movement of people and traffic which is illegal in a European context. Likewise, exempting Spanish workers from that measure is discriminatory. He has been told this by Madrid but he is in such a desperate state that he is taking no notice.
Queues at the frontier can be created by just checking passports now and again as everyone knows - imagine what he would be creating if every vehicle and person intending to cross the frontier had to make a payment!
If he wants to be taken seriously he should come out with a properly thought-out economic development plan for La Linea.
CONCERN
Meanwhile, many of the thousand Spaniards who work in Gibraltar are expressing concern about the possible consequences of what the mayor proposes to do.
If you add registered Spanish workers to non-registered workers and to others who are self-employed, and do all kinds of jobs in Gibraltar, as well as other workers in Gibraltar who rent in La Linea and beyond, and of the high expenditure of Gibraltar residents in La Linea, it could well be that half of La Linea depends on Gibraltar for their livelihood!
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