CM tables motion to grant Sir Joe the Freedom of the City

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has tabled a motion in the Gibraltar Parliament to confer the Freedom of the City of Gibraltar on Sir Joe Bossano.

The motion acknowledges Sir Joe’s 46 years of service to this community, having first been elected to Gibraltar House of Assembly in 1972.

It recalls that Sir Joe Bossano is now the longest-serving elected representative of the people of Gibraltar in the history of Gibraltar, as well as one of the longest-serving Parliamentarians in the Commonwealth.

Sir Joe served as Chief Minister following elections in Gibraltar in 1988 and in 1992, and as Leader of the Opposition following elections in Gibraltar in 1976, 1984, 1996, 2000, 2003 and in 2007.

He continued to serve as a minister following elections in Gibraltar in 2011 and in 2015.

The motion also commends his lifetime involvement with the trade-union movement during the struggle for parity and subsequently, and the transformation of Gibraltar’s economy during his time in Government.

It welcomes his “visionary domestic policies” of encouraging home ownership through a 50/50 scheme and the abolition of the points system to attend UK universities, which opened the floodgates for many students to further their education abroad.

It also welcomes his trademark defence of the right of the people of Gibraltar to self-determination and to a democratic decolonisation and his rejection of the claim from Spain to the sovereignty of Gibraltar.

The motion also acknowledges his knighthood as “richly deserved”, adding that it should be matched by the highest honour that Parliament can bestow in the name of the people of Gibraltar, namely the granting of the Freedom of the City.