Govt and Opposition trade fierce barbs on May Day

The Government and Opposition traded fierce barbs in the run-up to May Day, triggered by messages from respective leaders.

The Government said the GSD was repeating “tired” personal attacks and allegations aimed at the Chief Minister but had little to say about workers and the workplace.

The GSD countered that describing the political divide in Gibraltar as one between left-wing and right-wing politics, as the Chief Minister had done, was “desperate fearmongering”, adding the real choice was between “right and wrong”.

In a statement, No.6 Convent Place said Mr Azopardi’s May Day message demonstrated the party had “no positive programme” to offer working people in Gibraltar.

While the Chief Minister had focused on issues  such as fair pay, trade unionism and the future of work, the GSD had deployed “…the same tired personal attacks, the same reheated allegations and the same negative politics that have become its only offer to Gibraltar.”

“When the man who asked for over £400,000 to work for me in Government writes a May Day piece which says nothing about workers’ rights, working conditions, fair pay, trade unionism or the future of work, people can see the truth for themselves,” said Chief Minister Fabian Picardo.

“Mr Azopardi is not in politics because he cares about working people. He is in politics to fulfil his own personal ambition.”

“The GSD can try to wrap itself in the language of working people, but the people of Gibraltar know the truth.”

“This is the party of Clinton’s Cut and Azopardi’s Austerity.”

“It is the party that talks about working people when it suits its election strategy, but whose instincts are always to cut, to reduce and to take away.”

“That is not social justice. That is the same old GSD.”

“May Day is about workers. For the GSLP, it always has been.”

“The GSLP/Liberal Government will continue to stand with working people, with trade unions, with families, with students, with pensioners and with all those who want a Gibraltar that is fair and socially just.”

“That is not fearmongering. That is who we are.”

That last comment was a response to Opposition accusation that Mr Picardo’s characterisation of the political divide in Gibraltar as a rift between  left and right-wing politics amounted to “desperate fearmongering” from a party that had “nothing left to say in its fight for political survival”.

The GSD said the GSLP was now the party of “the Establishment and big business”.

“It is also the Party of special interests as the Openshaw Report has shown,” the Opposition said.

“This is a Government that remembers the working classes at election time when it starts to make all form of promises or write letters to people with election commitments that it then unceremoniously abandons.”

It described Mr Picardo’s comments as “populist nonsense”, recalling his “10-year-old Porsche sympathy” and the proposed car levy that the Government had to scrap within 24 hours amid public outcry, and asking if that was proof of the party’s commitment to workers.

“As the son of a Dockyard worker who was a lifelong member of the TGWU I reject the GSLP’s fake ideological fearmongering in their desperate fight for political survival,” said Keith Azopardi, the Leader of the Opposition.

“The real divide at the next election is not between right v left but between right and wrong.”

“Whether we want a Gibraltar where it is acceptable for the GSLP to preside over waste and abuse, be opaque with your money, assault the law and sanction grossly improper conduct of its leader or his attempts to interfere in a criminal investigation.”

“The GSD say all that is unacceptable. The GSLP have condoned all that as acceptable.”

“And every leadership contender has supported Mr Picardo at every stage.”

“That is the true divide at the next election. Right or wrong?”

“And whether the people of Gibraltar want more of the same or to opt for change and a better future to make sure none of that happens again.”