By Maria Jesus Corrales
Representatives of over 100 organisations gathered in La Linea city council’s voting chamber on Tuesday in support for a pro-treaty demonstration on October 25.
The representatives called on the national and regional Spanish authorities to support the UK/EU negotiations and ensure fluidity across the border.
“It is a matter of survival”, “we are at a point of no return”, and “we need an agreement” were just some of the opinions shared by the attendees, from a cross-section of society ranging from members of trade unions, neighbourhood associations, political parties and business associations, to sports, social clubs, and the arts community.
The attendees agreed to stand together under a banner that reads ‘La Línea counts, we are not invisible’.
Mayor Juan Franco told attendees that “right now, time is running out”.
“We have been begging for an agreement with imaginative solutions for eight and a half years. And none have come to this city in the meantime,” he said.
He added that a study, which received wide-ranging support from political parties and business associations, had predicted how a hard Brexit would impact the city.
A third of the companies in La Linea would be affected, some 8,000 foreign residents of the city “would leave” and the unemployment would become unmanageable, the forecast read.
“There could be an emigration as in 1969,” Mr Franco said.
“If we do not receive support from the Junta and the nation, this could be very concerning.”
La Linea city council has already requested the relevant authorisation to carry out a march from Plaza Fariñas to the border, and has also drawn up a report expressly stating that disruption would be minimised.
“We will stay in front of the road, on the Bulevar side. The road will not be cut and there will be no traffic congestion around the border,” Mr Franco said.
Once there, a united statement calling for tailor-made policies and measures to benefit the city will be read out, highlighting that the events of the border closure should not be repeated and that the city needs to be heard and supported.
One of the issues of greatest concern to the attendees at the meeting was the reaction Gibraltarians might have to the demonstration.
“We are neighbours and we get on well. We want to stay that way, and we also need to defend our interests,” was a common sentiment amongst the various presidents of the city’s neighbourhood associations.
Regarding this, Mr Franco said that “this is not against Gibraltar at all”.
“Our city needs very specific support measures, that the shared prosperity agreement benefits us and that our people are listened to,” he said.
One attendee suggested that the people of Gibraltar should be invited to join the demonstration, to which Mr Franco responded that an appeal will be made to the people of Gibraltar via Chief Minister Fabian Picardo.
After the meeting, the mayor confirmed to the Chronicle that he would contact Mr Picardo to discuss “the possibility of a simultaneous demonstration on the other side of the border”.
This is the first of many actions being planned and La Linea city hall is working to ensure popular support.
“We need to be united; we are asking you to back us and to avoid what, unfortunately, is coming if there is no agreement,” said the vice-president of the provincial government of Cádiz and deputy mayor in La Linea, Javier Vidal.
Mr Franco added that “the people of La Línea must take to the streets” and that the demonstration should be a landmark moment.
“This is a question of survival; we cannot be left behind at the station,” concluded the UGT trade unionist José Porras Naranjo, to the attendees’ applause.
There was also some criticism from local social groups, such as neighbourhood association Flavi, who demanded more information from the council and greater involvement in the drafting of the united statement.