By Samuel Marrache

Picture the scene; a football team has triumphed through the group stages of the Champions League. They then successfully progress through the knockout rounds and once again comfortably pass the quarter and semi-finals of the competition. With momentum behind them and respect throughout the footballing world, they are 30 minutes away from starting the Champions League Final. Would anyone sensible change the team’s manager at this stage?

The obvious answer to this almost rhetorical question is no, and the comparison to Brexit and the current political environment in Gibraltar is clear and obvious.

The GSLP/Liberals under the leadership of Fabian Picardo have triumphed in areas which no one thought would be possible. The Brexit negotiations team led by the Chief Minister secured, in the space of just a few years, guarantees on our sovereignty, recognition of our tax authorities and even acceptance by the Spanish of ‘Gibraltarian’ nationality.

Additionally, the Chief Minister and his team have forged strong relationships with politicians and diplomats throughout the world and especially within the United Kingdom. We have seen unprecedented levels of support from Westminster and Gibraltar is no longer a foreign concept to many MPs.

With Boris Johnson as PM, the likelihood of the UK and Gibraltar leaving the EU on the 31^st of October has dramatically increased. By the time the general election on the 17^th of October arrives, we will be in an equivalent position to being 30 minutes away from the Champions League Final. Brexit will be looming and the momentum and respect which the GSLP/Liberals have created over the last few years will be needed in order to see us across the line in the strongest and steadiest manner.

That is not to say that the only reason why the GSLP/Liberals deserve your vote is because we cannot afford change at this crucial juncture. In fact, the domestic record which the GSLP/Liberals has amassed since being elected into Government eight years ago speaks for itself.

In the space of eight short years, against the backdrop of Brexit, Gibraltar has truly been transformed. In education, we have seen the creation and renovation of schools like St Bernard’s, Notre Dame and the Comprehensives. In sport, we have seen several new state-of-the-art facilities being built such as new shooting ranges and the Europa sports complex. In health, we have seen wide-ranging reforms including the introduction of IVF, Ocean Views, Hillsides and Bella Vista and most recently a new children’s primary care centre. Our tourist product has been completely revolutionised and equality has been championed. Our foreign affairs have been handled with an unparalleled degree of professionalism. In housing, hundreds of families have already been housed in affordable homes such as Beach View Terraces and Mons Calpe Mews, with numerous purpose-built rental homes being allocated to our elderly.

Moreover, as a young member of our community, and especially as a student, the changes I have witnessed in the last eight years have been astounding. University grants were first extended to postgraduate studies so that everyone who chooses to could obtain a postgraduate degree. Events to engage our youth and ensure that they can party safely in Gibraltar were created including the now world-famous Gibraltar Music Festival which has attracted dozens of the best bands and singers in the world to our Rock. The housing waiting list is being proactively tackled with new 50/50 housing schemes already built or in the process of being built. Record low levels of unemployment have been reached and the abolition of a job scheme which paid its employees half the minimum wage! To top it off (and I could list yet more achievements for our youth) this year all students had their maintenance grants increased by around £500 in order to combat the ever-rising prices in the UK.

It is therefore impossible, even laughable, for any political party to suggest that they should be elected in place of the GSLP/Liberals based on the domestic record over the last eight years.  

It is true of course that some projects remain to be completed, however, when we take into account how Gibraltar has changed in the short space of eight years despite Brexit, no one can argue that the GSLP/Liberals’ record is anything but impressive.

At this stage the usual critiques which we have come to hear from those in the GSD will no doubt emerge. Gibraltarians will once again be subjected to irrational and miscalculated economic imputations that this current Government is somehow overspending and that the budget is full of lies.

Given how mistaken this argument is, it does not deserve a response. It is simply a last-ditch effort repeatedly used by the GSD in order to instil fear into the Gibraltarian. However, since it will be incessantly repeated over the new few weeks it is worth highlighting how futile it is.

The budget released by this Government over the last eight years has been calculated in exactly the same manner as all previous Gibraltarian Governments have used. Therefore, when anyone attempts to discredit the budget, remind them that they are implying that all those budgets calculated under previous Chief Ministers such as Sir Peter Caruana, Sir Joe Bossano, Adolfo Canepa, Sir Joshua Hassan and Sir Bob Peliza were also by implication mistaken. The ‘golden legacy’ left by Sir Peter Caruana, as some in the GSD would call it, would therefore be nothing more than an economic disaster.

The futility and even arrogance of this argument, claiming that budgets have been miscalculated under several well-respected Chief Ministers, is something which every Gibraltarian should see straight through and recognise the desperation which some are experiencing, and the extent that they will go to in order to try and attract voters to their party.

On the 17^th of October every Gibraltarian of voting age will be asked to decide who they want to govern their hometown for the next four years. The choice is simple: either vote for an alliance which has had an unprecedented level of domestic and foreign relations success or vote for a change. That change is either a dying, stagnant party which rehashes and repeats its usual fear-inducing arguments or a new party with minimal experience in the areas needed in order to make Brexit a success and ensure that Gibraltar continues to thrive.

It has been heard over the last few weeks around Gibraltar that this election will be important in order to see which party – either TG or the GSD – forms part of the opposition. However, voters must remember that if they do not want to ‘change their team’s manager’ at this crucial junction in our history and if they want to continue to see Gibraltar thrive over the next four years, then we all need to campaign and head out to vote for the GSLP/Liberals on the 17^th of October. Complacency is the most dangerous trait in these elections.

Samuel Marrache is Chairman of the GSLP Students