Gibraltar celebrates

In the run up to the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, ugly clashes were continuing to take place between the British territory of Gibraltar and Spain over Spanish fishermen’s rights to cast nets in nearby waters. And so as a snub to the UK, the Spanish government ordered Queen Sofia to cancel her attendance at a luncheon to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee at Windsor Castle.

Defiant Rock celebrates the Diamond Jubilee

Despite tensions between Spain and the Rock, Gibraltarians refused to let the occasion pass them by and on Monday the tiny territory mustered its own flotilla of boats including military vessels around its coastline to honour the Queen’s 60 years of reign. The Royal Gibraltar regiment gave a 21-Gun salute and patriotic residents planned a series of festive events.

While many British expats in Spain decided to return to the UK to enjoy the celebrations, plenty of Britons-particularly Londoners-were fleeing the crowds to bask on a beach in sunny Spain. Meanwhile in Gibraltar bunting, Union Jacks and street parties were the name of the game while a cautious Spanish media offered a perfunctory and on occasion, critical review of events in London.

El Pais featured an image of a smiling Queen Elizabeth but described the celebrations as interminable with incessant renditions of ‘God Save the Queen’ being sung in what it described as possibly excessive patriotism. The report suggested that the Queen hadn’t enjoyed the Thames flotilla as much as the rest of the country given that she had had to endure four hours of bitterly cold weather. It added that she hadn’t smiled much at the concert on Monday night and that the endless celebrations had taken their physical toll. It focused too on the Duke of Edinburgh’s sudden admission to hospital and concluded that the three day celebration offered Britons a fleeting chance to forget the recession.

El Mundo gave less oxygen to the Diamond Jubilee focusing instead on the cost of staging the ‘interminable festivities’ -€350 million (£275 million) according to the newspaper- and the fact that anti-royalists had mounted a protest.

The patriotic fervour exhibited by Britons during the Diamond Jubilee has been in marked contrast to the reception King Juan Carlos received from the Spanish electorate recently in the wake of his elephant hunting trip to Botswana. Such extravagance jarred at a time when the country was seen to be suffering economic meltdown. Perhaps doffing their cap to austerity measures engulfing the country, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia failed to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary although this could have been to avoid further media scrutiny while their son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin, faces corruption charges.

With Prince Edward and his wife the Countess of Wessex due to visit Gibraltar on 11, June as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, it’s unlikely that relations between the UK and Spanish government are going to improve any time soon.