Sep 03 - Feetham to Attend National Day Rally
GSD Leader Daniel Feetham has accepted the SDGG’s invitation to the National Day Rally. Mr. Feetham does so in order to highlight the importance of solidarity amongst all the people of Gibraltar on a day of national celebration, ‘at a time when our rights as a people are under particular threat’.
For the sake of clarity the Leader of the opposition has said that his attendance at the rally does not signify an abandonment of the GSD’s long held position that since the New Constitution, Gibraltar enjoys a maximum level of self-Government short of independence and compatible with continued British sovereignty. That also remains the position of the United Kingdom Government as publicly expressed by them on numerous occasions.
A GSD statement issued this afternoon noted that they respect that it is the SDGG’s view that Gibraltar wants self-determination and decolonisation. However, this is not the position of the GSD. The party claims that despite the fact that the UN Committee of 24 will not recognise that Gibraltar shares a modern non-colonial relationship with the UK, it does not alter the fact that Gibraltar Is not a colony and has exercised its right to self-determination.
The Leader of the Opposition will not have the right to speak at the event. In the absence of being able express the GSD’s own views, the party’s attendance cannot be viewed as an endorsement of any view expressed from the platform by any other speaker, particularly when they have been consistently cautioning against the use of language that escalates or inflames tensions on both sides, including the Spanish side.
The party notes, ‘over the last three weeks the Leader of the Opposition has met with the Chief Minister on a number of occasions where he has been briefed on the Government's strategy and been as frank as possible with his own views. It has been our deliberate policy to say as little as possible to give the Government an opportunity to resolve the current situation. Political criticism and political accountability for the current state of affairs must come second to allowing the Government the necessary space at this moment in time in the wider interest of our community. ‘
