• Holland And Barrett Vitamins Gibraltar Offer

Sep 22 - Montiel Replies To Chief Minister’s “Vindictive Statements”

Luis Montiel has sent the following in response to the Government’s press release earlier today.

Dear Sirs,

It is with great regret that I am forced to continue to write to respond to the vindictive statements of our Chief Minister.  That he has chosen to issue such an intemperate statement in his own name aimed at totally destroying my credibility says more about him than it does about me.

Anyone who has observed politics for any length of time cannot but fail to notice that Mr. Picardo has become everything that he used to criticise in his predecessor: arrogance, vindictiveness, intolerance of political opposition, the desire to not only to win but to crush political opponents in the process.

He did not have to issue a statement in his own name gloating about the misfortune of a former political opponent who has lost part of his claim against his Government.

It is however the allegation that my claim was an abuse and an attempt to profit from my position as a Minister that encapsulates Chief Minister’s political character: scratch away at the surface, and look behind the selfies and the smiles, and the nastiness against those who disagree with him is palpable.

The reality of my claim is this:

(a)  I had a contractual right to be reinstated into the GDC as from the next working day after the General Election, which the judge has upheld.

(b)  The GSD Government decided to transfer (on any view) 99% of GDC employees to the Civil Service.

(c)  The GSLP Government decided to honour any offer to transfer to the Civil Service.

(d)  I am the only GDC employee whom the GSD Government decided to transfer who has not been given that option by the GSLP Government.

(e)  No one who was transferred from the GDC to the Civil Service earned more within the latter.  It is therefore not true that I would have profited from the transfer. No GDC employee profited from that transfer. My desire to transfer was because in the Civil Service there was less scope for political interference from the GSLP.

As Chief Minister of Gibraltar you are expected to be fair and even handed with your former political opponents. The Chief Minister is not going to convince honest and right thinking people with this kind of vindictive vendetta statement. It is quite frankly shameful.

Yours faithfully

Luis Montiel