The Cross Frontier Group, constituted by both Union and Business organizations in Gibraltar and the Campo who aim to promote cooperation between the two communities have expressed ‘their most profuse rejection to the decision by Sñr. Garcia Margallo, Spanish Foreign Minister, to close down the Instituto Cervantes in Gibraltar.’
The US continues to show its support for the Rock, with US Congressman George Holding, a Republican member for North Carolina leading a group of Congressmen in filing a formal Resolution recognizing Gibraltar’s right to self-determination, in the House of Representatives.
The GSD has deplored and condemned the recent announcement that the Instituto Cervantes is to close. The party has rubbished his statements not recignising the institution of the Chief Minister of Gibraltar’s constitution. A statement released by the Opposition insisted that his decision to close the Institute ‘represents a retrograde step in the context of the improvement of relations with the Spanish people at a cultural and indeed human level, an aim which is espoused by all political parties in Gibraltar but which has always been a corner stone of GSD policy.
The Opposition has criticized the Government’s recently published Sustainable Traffic, Transport and Parking Plan, claiming that is an ‘expensive exercise with a predictable result.’
Shooting down the GSD’s claim that the Chief Minister exaggerated his pledge to transparency, the Government has insisted that whilst the former administration ‘refused point-blank to answer questions from the press or from the public and gave the then Opposition just a handful of Parliamentary opportunities to ask any questions’ the current Government answers press questions regularly, holds Direct Democracy sessions to answer the public’s questions and chairs monthly sessions of Parliament.