If the GSLP is to change its leader, it should do so NOW

Opposition leader Joe Bossano is a wily political strategist and seldom falters in his dealings with the media. However, it is not easy to see the reasoning - or justification - behind his recent choice of a Spanish newspaper interview in which to confirm not only that he will stand down as leader of the GSLP but that he will remain, effectively, an eminence gris to the party. If at any stage his successor "takes a crazy decision, it will be good that there is somebody with experience to advise him," he told ‘Andalucia Informacion'.

That aspect of his decision DOES make sense, for Bosano's wealth of experience and encyclopedic attention to detail is invaluable in Opposition. But that working grasp of our political pattern - combined with Bossano's long-term reluctance to give up the leadership of a party with which he has become synonymous - is unlikely to compensate for the discomfort that the new leader, whoever he may be, is likely to feel sensing that the Bossano legacy is perched on his shoulder like a pirate's parrot, and that every decision he may take will be scrutinized for signs of ‘craziness'.

And there lies the rub. For\one of the shortcomings of the GSLP in recent years has been its lack of real across-the-board democracy. Bossano's word has become the party's Holy Writ and mainly has gone unchallenged by his colleagues in the parliamentary opposition, his allies in the Liberal Party, and by the party's executive committee...whereas what is needed is change. And that will be achieved only in a climate of open and frank discussion in which there can be criticism from within the party membership as well as from its friends.

That is how democracy works. And Gibraltar has already suffered - and continues to suffer - from the undemocratic and autocratic style of Government which the Caruanan regime has come to symbolise.

Swapping autocrats?

Voters will not want to be rid of one autocrat, only for him to be replaced by another when elections come round in two year's time. So there's an ominous ring to Bossano's assertion to his  Spanish interviewer that a future new leader of the GSLP will be responsible for the decisions that he takes - just as Bossano himself does now.

Of course, much of any future course which the GSLP takes - and it may have to take decisions over the resistant bodies of the diehard grass-roots Bossano supporters whose approach to politics (particularly among the older generation) is ruled by sentiment rather than sense, and emotion rather than intellect - will depend on Bossano's successor; and, from Fabian Picardo, the heir apparent to the party's leadership, a more rational and modern form of policy-making can be expected.

But while Picardo may lack his leader's experience - a lack exemplified by the way in which he allows the Chief Minister to bait him into angry parliamentary exchanges - he is quite as strong-willed as Bossano...and the GSLP will need to be equally tough in the support they give him - to ensure that he doesn't follow Gibraltar's other political leaders (whatever their ideological persuasion) down the slippery slope away from democracy.

In the interview with ‘Andalucia Informacion' the 72-year-old veteran trades unionist and politician reiterates his determination to step down as leader of the GSLP before the next general election. It is something which he indicated at the last general meeting of the party after which it was tacitly understood that he would retain the leadership for a final two-year term and then hand over the reins to his successor.

But, for all VOX's admiration for Joe Bossano and our recognition of the service he has given so unstintingly to the Rock and its people, such a delay is tactically unwise. The change should come now - not only in time for the new leadership to settle as comfortably as possible into Bossano's shoes, but to shape the new policies and direction it will need if it is to oust the present Government at the ballot box. The new leader will also need time to cultivate the party's grass-roots Bossano-ites and convert them to an acceptance of the changes that must come if the GSLP is to regain power.

And it's time to admit, too, that in spite of growing dissatisfaction with Caruana and his style of government there is a substantial number of voters, particularly in our business and finance sector, who will never vote for a party led by Bossano, but whose contempt for the methods of the autocrat of No 6 and desire to see the back of him easily could be persuaded to support a ‘new look' GSLP with new leadership and policies better adapted to the needs of Gibraltar in the 21st Century.