LONDON — Voters head to the polls for a Brexit election Thursday — only it's in Gibraltar not in the U.K. as a whole.

Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told POLITICO in an interview that he decided to bring the vote forward after Boris Johnson became U.K. prime minister to ensure a new government would be in place in case there was a no-deal Brexit.

His campaign has sought to convince voters the government is prepared for a no-deal departure from the European Union by Britain, something disputed by U.K. government planning documents and by his opponents. Picardo said his government has put together a plan that details every step he and his closest Cabinet colleagues would take in the days leading up to and immediately after a no-deal outcome.

“We are ready for the morning after if that eventuality were to come to pass,” he said. “Every minute of my day, of the deputy chief’s day, and the day of most officials would be planned from 48 hours before a hard Brexit and to the immediate actions that we would be making in the run-up and in the minutes after a hard Brexit occurs.”

Front-runner Picardo is standing once again as the candidate of a coalition between his party, the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party, and the Liberal Party. This coalition has ruled Gibraltar since the 2011 election.

Picardo’s GSLP/Liberals coalition is set for another landslide win, according to a poll carried out for the Gibraltar Chronicle, which predicts 10 seats out of 17 for the coalition, six for the Gibraltar Social Democrats and one for Together Gibraltar.

Spanish threat

Another concern is the possibility of a right-wing coalition government after an election in Spain next month. Politicians in the two most right-wing parties in the country regard the U.K. territory on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula as a colony and see Brexit as an opportunity to regain some degree of sovereignty over The Rock.

Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement included a section on Gibraltar that covered citizens’ rights, cooperation on environmental issues, police, customs, and the movement of tobacco and other products. But in the event of a no-deal Brexit, such a cooperation agreement would no longer be valid. It is unclear what a no-deal scenario would look like in Gibraltar, but its government is preparing for hours of delays at the border. Unlike the rest of the U.K., Gibraltar is out of the EU customs union.

Spaniards are going to the polls for the second time this year on November 10. Support for the far right and nationalist party Vox — which is calling for a gradual process to make Gibraltar part of Spain — is growing, according to POLITICO's Poll of Polls. The conservative Popular Party, with whom Vox could form a coalition, demands joint U.K.-Spanish control over Gibraltar (an option rejected by 99 percent of Gibraltarians in a referendum in 2002).

Picardo said he is ready to deal with whatever government wins November’s vote in Spain, but added: “I have very little to say to those whose political discourse reminds me more of what was said in Central Europe in the late 1930s than what we should be saying to each other in the 21st century.”

“I do hope that whichever government may be and whatever political conception, they will understand that what is in the interest of both parties in this part of the world is that we should get on with each other.”

Picardo said the European Commission has unfairly taken Spain’s side in the Brexit negotiations. “We were surprised that the Commission should decide to support Spain in some of the things they have said and in the way it has expressed itself,” he said, without giving examples.

“Frankly, the Commission, in my view, should’ve been neutral and should’ve been supportive, and Spain and the Commission should’ve been generous in the way that they dealt with the people who most supported the European project in the way we voted in that referendum [96 percent of Gibraltarians backed Remain in the U.K.’s 2016 vote].”

No-deal no plan?

One of the pillars of Picardo’s campaign is Gibraltar’s preparedness for a no-deal Brexit. His reassurances were put to the test by the U.K. government’s Operation Yellowhammer dossier, which sets out plans for a no-deal exit from the European Union and was leaked to the Times newspaper in August. The Gibraltarian chief minister dismissed the document as “massively out of date.”

The document said Gibraltar is underprepared for a no-deal Brexit and that it has not invested in sufficient “contingency infrastructure” despite the Brexit deadline being delayed from March to the end of October. The dossier warned that “prolonged border delays over the longer term are likely to adversely impact Gibraltar’s economy” and reported concerns that the territory “will not have passed all necessary legislation for no-deal.”

Picardo’s political opponents have seized on the document. Keith Azopardi, the leader of the center-right party Gibraltar Social Democrats and a former deputy chief minister of Gibraltar, accused the government of conducting “superficial and token discussions with the opposition without sharing any documents” on Brexit preparations in their manifesto. The GSD manifesto pledges tax incentives for businesses after Brexit and cuts to income tax rates.

SPAIN NATIONAL PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS

For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.

Also running is Marlene Hassan Nahon, founder of the left-wing party Together Gibraltar, which supports a second Brexit referendum in which her party would campaign to remain in the EU. Neither candidates responded to a request for an interview.

As Brexit looms closer, the chief minister is using his contacts in Brussels to make the case against a no-deal departure. Picardo described his relationship with Josep Borrell, Spain’s former foreign affairs minister who will soon be in charge of the EU's foreign affairs, as “good” and “respectful” despite “many political disagreements” over Gibraltar’s status.

But Picardo’s views on Brexit are “diametrically opposed” to those of Ann Widdecombe, the Brexit Party MEP for South West England, who represents Gibraltar in the European Parliament. Widdecombe supports the U.K. leaving the EU without a deal and says Gibraltar is ready for that outcome, partly thanks to their “sheer ‘can do’ attitude.”

“I don’t think a no-deal Brexit is going to deliver a blow to anybody’s economy. I think it is actually going to enable us to boom and to do very nicely,” she said.

After Thursday's election, Picardo will continue in campaign mode, this time for a second Brexit referendum, which he said is necessary to legitimize the decision to leave the EU made by the British people almost three years and a half ago.

“If anybody says they don’t want to see a second referendum, they’re running scared of the truth, because with all the facts in front of them the British people may likely reach a completely different conclusion,” he said. “There would be nowhere to hide for those who lied to the British people in the 2016 referendum.”

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