Leader Of The GSLP Fabian Picardo Party Political Broadcast
Below follows a Party Political Broadcast by the Leader of the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party, Fabian Picardo, that was broadcasted on GBC yesterday evening:
My dear fellow Gibraltarians,
Now that Easter has passed, Ramadan has ended and our families are settling back into the new school term, this is an important week for our nation for two, main, reasons.
The first is the start of the Inquiry, at last, into the early retirement of the former Commissioner Ian McGrail.
The second, but more important matter, relates to the progress being made in the Treaty negotiations with the EU.
I will address both of these in turn.
I convened the McGrail Inquiry and have been determined that it should take place.
And, despite my heavy workload, I have provided documents and statements as required by the Chairman.
I will continue to do so and will fully cooperate with the Inquiry.
I will be giving evidence before the Inquiry.
And I know that you will all have been pleased to hear the Chairman of the Inquiry, Sir Peter Openshaw, has independently explicitly confirmed that the Restriction Notice issued on National Security and Public Interest grounds is directed at only a relatively few documents among the many thousands of documents which have been disclosed to the Inquiry.
The Chairman has also said that he is confident that the Inquiry can properly proceed and he can do the job he has been tasked with doing.
That alone shows that Keith Azopardi has been wrong to say that the powers in the new Act would be used in manner that would have affected the work of the Inquiry.
And moreover, when I have invited Mr Azopardi in for a confidential briefing on why we needed to make the Restriction Notice, he has not agreed to meet.
That has made clear to you that Mr Azopardi does not care as much about the security of our nation, our children and our people as he does about his chances to try to damage me politically.
Mr Azopardi has all his priorities wrong.
Mr Azopardi has put his ambition to become Chief Minister above the public interest and the national security of our nation.
I know that you will never forgive him for that.
Mr Azopardi had made up his mind to use the Inquiry against the Government before a single word was spoken in the Inquiry hearings.
Well, by now, you have heard the independent Counsel to the Inquiry go through the facts, listing the evidence before it, and the list of issues the Inquiry will consider in the coming weeks.
You have heard the concerns, from both the Governor and me, about Mr McGrail’s repeated lies and many shortcomings as Commissioner.
And, importantly - but unfortunately for Keith Azopardi - zero evidence of any corruption by the Government arises from the facts as independently set out by Mr Santos on Monday.
But Mr Azopardi was determined to use the Inquiry only as a political weapon, whether or not doing so damaged Gibraltar.
He has preferred to trash our nation’s reputation rather than listen to the concerns of your democratically elected Government about our security and nation’s public interest.
By doing that I have no doubt that Mr Azopardi has, effectively, disqualified himself in your eyes forever from the privilege of leading our people.
Additionally, Mr Azopardi had sought an appointment to persuade a Governor that a Bill, properly passed by the Gibraltar Parliament, should be denied Royal Assent.
Just as Mr McGrail’s lawyers have also done.
That was an attempt to seek Direct Rule from London.
A betrayal of our democracy.
A betrayal of the work of all Chief Ministers from Sir Joshua Hassan to Sir Peter Caruana before me.
A betrayal of every, single Gibraltarian.
In fact, the steps I have taken, with my Cabinet, in relation to these issues, are steps that I have taken only to PROTECT GIBRALTAR.
If the same circumstances arose again, I would not hesitate to ACT IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY again.
Despite the untrue, negative, and sensationalist, international press coverage. Despite the political abuse.
I would do it all again.
For Gibraltar.
Because I love Gibraltar.
I will leave no stone unturned to protect our nation, our home, our children’s home.
And that, principally, means continuing to work to secure the treaty between the UK and the EU.
I can confirm tonight that later this week, on Friday, I will travel to Brussels for a high level meeting with Lord Cameron, Spanish Foreign Minister Albares and EU Vice President, Maros Sefcovic to continue treaty negotiations.
At that meeting, we will continue our work to bring back a treaty that is safe and secure for Gibraltar.
Because despite the many other issues we have to deal with, Joseph Garcia, Michael Llamas and I have not rested in pursuing Gibraltar’s interests in these negotiations with the EU.
At the time of the election last year, I told you that we were the only ones who could guarantee that we would bring back a safe deal for Gibraltar, for a simple reason.
If it is not a safe deal for Gibraltar, I WILL NOT BRING IT BACK
But by the same token, if we DO bring back a treaty, it will be safe and secure. That is my commitment to you.
A serious, substantive and sincere approach to THE most important issue of our time.
Regrettably, with Mr Azopardi at the helm of the GSD, I fully expect that their political response to ANY treaty we bring back will be to dramatically decry it as bad, however good it may be for you and our children.
We will not be deterred by that though.
We will continue to work to deliver a safe and secure treaty.
To secure our nation future.
To secure our children’s future.
To secure the best interest of every one of the People of Gibraltar for generations to come.
That is what you expect from your nation’s leaders.
AND that is what we will deliver.
Thank you for listening.
Good night
