Gibraltar unbowed: the false prospectus of the GSD
By F Oliva
The 2024 Budget Session highlighted an ideological imbalance that exists at the heart of Gibraltar’s parliamentary process. I use the term deliberately, not suggesting there is a democratic deficit of any kind. After all the legislative chamber can only reflect what there is, can only translate the will of the people as expressed in votes at election time.
Before diving deep into the subject matter a plea for action to Madame Speaker: a ruling to prevent the serial abuse by MPs of the Cambridge book of school quotes – or equivalent – that has become so prevalent this year. Unless Honourable Members can demonstrate a prior, substantial knowledge of the originator of the quote, they should refrain from such pretentiousness. A dull intervention will not be made better by quoting Thatcher or Attlee, much less by sprinkling it with the words of Orwell, Camus or the litany of obscure figures that were chucked into the public arena out of nowhere during the debate.
I propose to expose the GSD’s false prospectus that has come very much into focus during these proceedings. Historically a moderate, centre right party at inception led by Peter Caruana as an ideological refutation of Bossano’s socialist administration – in practice the social democrats tenure was a more nuanced affair – in 2024, under Keith Azopardi, it has undergone an unforeseen mutation, adopting the post-Marxist rhetoric and policies of a far left outfit, favouring an elephantine expansion of the public sector already a faithful reflection of the high spending pattern of 13 uninterrupted years of socialism.
Indeed, the flaws and contradictions in their discourse were ably exposed by the Chief Minister, who unlike his opponents is a professional, full time politician, a powerful orator who is alert to Azopardi’s intention of surfing every wave of discontent in the community capable of taking him to the door of Number 6.
POLITICAL WILDERNESS
There are three important factors at play here: Azopardi’s decades of wandering in the political wilderness has transformed him into a hardened cynic, hardwired to the pursuit of the prized possession that has slipped through his fingers more times than he cares to remember; his realisation that Gibraltar, whose genesis as a civilian society was essentially a trade union, has a structurally progressive political system intrinsically predisposed toward socialism, a proposition that although not axiomatic, has never been seriously put to the test; the GSD abduction from within which began with the failed TG merger causing a profound identity crisis, precipitating an ideological metamorphosis and a mimicking of leftist policies as the principal vote catching device in his armoury.
Far from precluding it, this narrative framework has underpinned a strategy of frontal opposition to the government, with a panoply of arguments that can fluctuate almost in the same breath, from criticising levels of spending to demanding higher expenditure, designed to elicit the definitive push he needs to attain the numerical threshold that has hitherto eluded him. Azopardi’s priority is clear: to mirror and supplant the GSLP as the hegemonic left wing force in Gibraltar as the means to oust it from power, if necessary by radicalising the message in parliament and outside.
But Azopardi is not fuelled by any idealistic or substantial ideological intent, only by a consuming political ambition to step into dead man’s shoes. That would explain the elevation of arch-rival Damon Bossino – it is often stated that the political opponent sits across the floor from you, while the enemy skulks beside – the token conservative who has disappointingly preferred personal popularity and the lure of a ministerial portfolio in 2027, than fighting the hard slog at the helm of a truly conservative political alternative. He is now doing the dirty work for the other socialists using him as lure for moderate voters, who on the strength of his personal charisma may be ‘persuaded’ to vote for the GSD.
It is ironic that Sacarello now untogether, appears as the most presentable of the rookies in his parliamentary group. With a private sector background there is still scope for evolution toward a more natural political constituency.
SURROGATE SOCIALISM
Frankly, attempts to portray the GSD as conservative or right wing on the strength of a hackneyed Thatcher quote or even abortion – a matter of conscience which cuts across political lines – are entirely misplaced, and for anyone with minimally developed conservative sensibility not short of absurd.
The GSD represents a surrogate version of socialism, the perpetuation of more socialism – a dim prospect – in all but in name, just as progressive, just as smitten with the egalitarian virus and the nefarious woke worldview as we have in power today. The fabled ‘ripe fruit’ applicable to a modern context, and the expectation that sooner rather than later, the electorate will simply ditch one lot of worn-out socialists for the ‘fresh’ facsimile that the Leader of the Opposition represents.
Politics always generates openings and the strategy is clear; rather than having a structured, rational and costed programme of government, every speculative vote catching device is prioritised, every popular disgruntlement embraced, as witnessed by the impromptu demonstration against the anti-pollution levy attended by the GSD to capitalise on the photo-opportunity. An ill-advised revenue raising stunt presumably the brainchild of deluded officials labouring under the fallacy that the Rock can make any impact on the global environment above a big fat zero.
But it gets even more devalued.
Indeed for much of the time the Budget debate was reduced to a tedious squabble among socialists to see who was more so than the other, who could raise higher taxes implicit or explicitly, who adhered to socialist orthodoxy more faithfully or rejected the epithet of pseudo freely exchanged across the floor, more forcefully. There were constant, depressing appeals to divisive language, references to the working class and the wealthy, emotional terms which Gibraltar had left behind even during Bossano’s time when he created an extended middle-class of homeowners which profoundly advanced the Rock’s sociological configuration.
Thus the opening reference to an ideological anomaly: unlike other mature democratic parliaments, there is no conservative option and persons of that disposition are obliged to either support socialism – the existential threat of the post Brexit saga and the need for a deal would have necessarily resulted in a tactical influx of such votes for Picardo – or to abstain, which means that since 2011 we have seen a steady abstention rate of around 30% including a sizeable proportion of effectively disenfranchised conservative voters.
PULP FICTION
Azopardi’s claim that there is a philosophical and political chasm between them and the GSLP in 2024 is no more than a self-serving political fiction. There is little difference in substance between the two blocks in parliament, but what sets him and Picardo, the two annihilators of Caruana’s iteration of the GSD worlds apart – the way in which they went about this speaks volumes about each one – and bears no possible comparison is the respective personal styles, political commitment and leadership in protecting Gibraltar from the Brexit abyss.
I will naturally not refrain from quoting the Bard’s Titus Andronicus in exclaiming ‘Woe betide’, the day Picardo calls it a day in 2027. Not only has he steered the EU-UK deal, Azopardi’s negative ambiguity further aggrandized Picardo’s authority in that respect, but managed to transcend the narrow classification of party political affiliation – even his own – to become a true statesman with a clear vision and plan to secure our collective future. There can be no greater accolade than the recognition of that verifiable fact.
Whatever his mistakes, the erosion of 13 years in power that exacerbates even further the intolerance of a public opinion, a monster gorged on constant gratification, insatiable greed and ever unquenchable expectations, he will be sorely missed. It is a well-known foible of the human condition that we take for granted what we have and only appreciate it to its full extent, when we no longer have it. The monumental power vacuum that will be created is extremely worrying. No-one currently in parliament will be able to fill the void perhaps not for a decade. Be careful what you wish for.