Address to the Nation of President Jesús Aguilar
Good evening, my dear Spanish citizens.
Today I address you not only as the President of the Government, but as one more citizen of this country called Spain. A country with a past of which we are proud, a present of which we feel even prouder and a future that we are building under democracy, unity and the vindication of our national sovereignty. Spain is not a nation that gives up easily, it always fights to the end and when the battle is over, we keep on fighting. Our empire, of which many ask us to be ashamed, showed us nothing but the values that this nation has. We are the nation that discovered America, the nation that dominated the seas for many years, seas that today, from the comfortable armchair of the uneducated in Europolis, they want to take away from us.
When I speak about the European Union, my words have always been positive and of great affection for an organisation to which we give everything and which reciprocates appropriately. Until today. Today, the European Union is showing us that it prefers the discomfort of its most prestigious and weighty members to those of lesser weight, with an incendiary diplomacy based on attacking and provoking, on causing reactions, like beating a dead horse. Meanwhile, they urge the Spanish people and their democratic government, which some nations dare to doubt its transparency and democratic functions, to comply with their irreverent, insensitive and uncultured regulations. The Union seems to prefer imposition over agreement.
To content us, to silence us, they are now offering us EU money to end taxes in the Straits of Gibraltar and Adventuranza, straits over which Spain has maintained, maintains and will forever maintain a territorial claim that we will protect until the end of our days. No one, no foreign country and no diplomat who thinks he knows what to do with our territorial waters, with our national policy and much less with our system of government and national representation, will give us any lessons. To all those who believe that this will stop the tax system, I dedicate the following sentence: you don't know how wrong you are. The Straits of Gibraltar and Adventuranza are Spanish, always have been and always will be.
We don't want EU money, we reject it. No one other than the taxes in the straits are going to fund the maintenance of marine life, the maintenance of local communities in both regions and the maintenance of the taxation system. No one other than the taxes will fund our people's employments, the future of the villages of the area. The Green Fund they are proposing is a bribe to silent us, to make us accept their act and comply with it. If the European bureaucrats think that will make us stop, the answer is no. Whether or not the proposal presented to the European Council is approved, I want to announce that Spain will continue to maintain and protect its territorial claims, maintain the regulations and maintain the taxation system; and we will exhaust every possible option to do so legally. No one in Europolis can impose, "manu militari", a standardisation of the Union's territorial and "international" waters with the disagreement of its major economic and military powers, and anyone who seeks to do so must know that they risk immolating the European Union.
When the Kingdom of Spain proposed to the Republic of Yosai a distribution of the Strait of Adventuranza in order not to provoke a crisis, it was done under terms of good neighbourliness and diplomatic responsibility to avoid a conflict. Spain will never resort to war, despite some suggestions to the contrary, to end this dispute. We continue to believe in diplomacy, but all we find is a concrete wall that is unwilling to budge an inch from its position. Today, I want to make known the proposals WE made in that negotiation: Yosai was offered to join the ASMSA, to have a single representative, just like us, to it; with a joint presidency and a voting system that only was able to pass votings if both representatives agreed; while compromising to protect and enforce the taxes in the Strait of Adventuranza. On the second section of this Treaty, the Spanish delegation offered an equal share of the revenue the taxes gave, a exclusion of ships from Spain and Yosai from the taxing, something we are keeping in Adventuranza; and the ability to make alterations to the taxing groups if there was an agreement between both delegates. The third section included dividing the Strait in two equal halves, 54.5km for each country, in which each nation would be able to enforce their own legislation and where the other country’s military wouldn’t be able to enter. Guess what, they refused it because of the tax. Everything they asked and keep asking for was there, we just asked for a tax: we got told no. The conclusion is simple: there was no will to reach an agreement, as there is no will from them today.
Now they are selling the story that it was us who rejected this agreement, that we have caused this crisis, and that we are going to provoke a war, lies that they only use against Spain and to degrade its international image. Today I offer you and all Europeans the truth that NO ONE, not even the most miserable of liars, will be able to say it is a fake. Spain wants an agreement, but we will not give in just because of the whims of a country that has proven to use childishness as a way of making politics against its neighbours. Nor will we give in to a European Union that is dying day by day, with an absent Commission that only seeks to see blood drip onto the carpet of the European Council, figuratively speaking. Its inaction is striking, and popular wisdom tells us that who says nothing agrees. It is therefore not crazy to deduce that the Commission supports this harassment against our country.
I would therefore like to announce that Spain maintains its position against any attempt to regulate the seas, to strip it of its maritime territories or similar. We are also against receiving money from the European Union that seeks to silence us, as if it were a bribe, to remove the taxation of the straits and the restrictions imposed by the competent authorities, which I have been told after their meeting today will continue. Spain did not join the Union to be bribed, mistreated and trampled underfoot. And it will not allow it. If the proposal is approved without our amendments, I would like to inform you once again that Spain will seek and use all available means to prevent its application on national territory, and may even resort to a temporary suspension of our European membership. Now, the ball is in the court of the European bureaucrats: do they prefer Spain inside or outside the EU? Do they prefer the status quo or taking a path with an unclear destination?
The door of my office remains open, and so does my private phone line. Spain, and I as its President, is always willing to dialogue and negotiate, but will never accept impositions from Europolis or other nations. To all the diplomats there, whose only target is this country and its taxation system as they have been proving during the last days: keep out. If you do not have a coastline, you have nothing to see here.
Thank you very much for your attention, and good night.
The Kingdom of Spain
