Yesterday, the 29th of July, Parliament was given notice of a motion that the Chief Minster intends to move at today’s Parliamentary session, categorising it as urgent in order to bypass the procedural five-day wait for a motion to be heard. 

The motion pushes for the Community Care Action group, signalling out the chairman of said group, Mr. Joseph Capurro, to withdraw their letter sent to his Excellency the Governor of Gibraltar, “at least insofar as the blatant inaccuracies therein contained.”

It also intends to use this parliamentary tool to single-handedly and forcefully settle a chapter of our history, as per the “cogent and clear explanations” provided by Sir Joe Bossano, and the “statements made by the Chief Minister” in his budget address replies from last Monday.

Together Gibraltar believes that this motion is undemocratic, and goes a step too far with regards stifling the right to free speech. It also represents an intolerable attack on organised civil society, and is an attempt at imposing a single, indisputable, GSLP-tainted narrative of this chapter of our history.

The Party believes that, as long as they do not breach the law, the people of Gibraltar have the right to send any letter they want to any authority. TG leader, Marlene Hassan-Nahon said: “That the CCAG’s letter includes errors and inaccuracies is unfortunate, and will surely have an impact on the effectiveness of their campaign in the long run. However, I will never condone the repression of civil society on this basis. People have a right to make demands, accurate or not, just as authorities have the responsibility to respond to those demands on their merits. What we cannot do is use parliamentary action to steamroll the voice of our people, however wrong it may sound to those in power.”

Concerned by the gravity of this undemocratic move by Government, the Opposition in its entirety felt it had no other recourse than to walk out from today’s parliamentary session while this motion was heard.

Parliament is not a platform for government to grandstand while vilifying and bullying ordinary citizens.