Tag Archives: Spain

Catalonia: Holding Hands for Independence

Six days ago was Catalonia’s ‘national’ independence day, dedicated to the memory of the fall of Barcelona to Philip V during the Spanish war of succession in 1714. The past two years have seen a particular vehement demonstration of Catalan nationalism with 100,000 protesters last year protesting vociferously in the Placa de Catalunya. This year […]

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Gibraltar: Posturing or a Threat?

In 1713, the small peninsula of Gibraltar was ceded from Spain to Great Britain in the Treaty of Utrecht after being captured in 1704 by mostly British and Dutch forces. Since then it has served as a trading outpost of the British Empire with the occasional Spanish siege, the last of which was in 1779. […]

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Spain’s Gibraltar border tax is a distraction from deeper Economic problems

Spain’s foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo’s recent threat to impose a €50 toll on vehicles crossing the Spain-Gibraltar border reflects nothing more than a cynical attempt to deflect attention from the countries failing economy. Unemployment in Spain is currently at 25% (second only to Greece in the Eurozone) and the IMF last Friday warned it […]

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