GSD will be ‘radicalising voice of change’, Azopardi says

As the GSD celebrates its 30th anniversary, party Leader Keith Azopardi has vowed to build on the work of his predecessors and modernise the GSD’s social democratic values and respond to current times.

In an opinion piece for this newspaper, Mr Azopardi said he was committed to building on the work of his predecessors – Peter Montegriffo, Daniel Feetham “and especially Peter Caruana who led the Party in Government for so long and in many respects was my political mentor

“I am intent on ensuring that we modernise our social democratic values to respond to our times and that we capture the public imagination once again by the time of the next election,” he said.

“We will not stay static. We will in new ways reach out to you and meet current and future challenges.”

Mr Azopardi said the party will be a “radicalising voice of change” to tackle today’s issues– in social services, housing, the environment, health, workers’ rights, the economy and civil rights.

“We want to see a Gibraltar where we are clear about what happens with your money, where there is no secrecy, where we end the jobs or contracts for the boys’ culture and we sweep aside unfairness.” “Where we properly provide mental health support or rights for the disabled or housing for single parents. Our belief in social and economic freedom combined with fairness, transparency and value for money can provide a powerful recipe for a new modern Gibraltar.”

He said: “This will be a GSD that will be responsive to our changing society and to the need to grapple with new challenges – in the environment, social media, on mental health, the elderly, on international business and on European relations.”

“We will be the new, progressive, reforming GSD planning for Gibraltar 2050 and not just the next four-year electoral cycle. To compete in this changing, modern world we need to be ahead of the game.”

Mr Azopardi said the signs are there that the GSLP Government “is losing its way and making mistakes”.

“Even in an election where they played the Brexit fear card really hard by saying that voters should not change the captain 14 days before the then Brexit deadline of October 31 the reality is that 46% of people still voted for opposition parties.”

“Our task in years to come is to ensure that people who want change support the GSD in numbers so that change can actually happen next time. We did it before and we can do it again,” he said.