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Gibraltar Social Democrats | |
|---|---|
.svg) | |
| Leader | Keith Azopardi MP |
| Chairman | Jimmy Ignacio |
| Founder | Peter Montegriffo |
| Founded | 1989; 36 years ago (1989) |
| Headquarters | 1A College Lane,Gibraltar |
| Youth wing | GSD Future |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre-right |
| British affiliation | Conservatives (local branch)[1] |
| Colours | Blue andyellow |
| Parliament | 8 / 17 |
| Website | |
| www | |
TheGibraltar Social Democrats (GSD) is aliberal-conservative,centre-rightpolitical party in Gibraltar. The GSD was the governing party for four successive terms in office under the leadership ofPeter Caruana, from the1996 general election until the party's electoral defeat in the2011 election by theGSLP–Liberal Alliance.
On 30 November 2017, the party underwent their secondleadership election as its leader,Daniel Feetham, resigned in July. As a result, 60.6% of the votes (from executives and members of the party) had gone to support rejoined GSD member,Keith Azopardi, who was a minister and Deputy Chief Minister under the first few years ofPeter Caruana's run as Chief Minister. Azopardi had beaten interim leaderRoy Clinton, who had gained 39.4% of the votes.
The party emerged, after the collapse of theAssociation for the Advancement of Civil Rights, as the main opposition to theGibraltar Socialist Labour Party (GSLP). The GSD was founded in 1989 by former AACR MP, Peter Montegriffo. When Peter Montegriffo resigned his Parliamentary seat in 1991, Peter Caruana who had become Party Leader won that contested bye-election against the then main opposition Party, the AACR. In 1996 the GSD managed to overturn a massive majority that the then GSLP Government had obtained at the previous 1992 general election and were elected to Government. The first GSD administration was made up of Peter Caruana [as Chief Minister], Peter Montegriffo [as Deputy Chief Minister], Ernest Britto, Hubert Corby, Keith Azopardi, Joe Holliday, Bernard Linares and Jaime Netto.
In 2005, the GSD merged with theGibraltar Labour Party, retaining the GSD name for the enlarged party. The merger was unpopular with many members of both parties, causing some high-profile GSD members to resign their membership, including deputy leaderKeith Azopardi and executive memberNick Cruz, who went on to form the short-livedProgressive Democratic Party.
In January 2013,Peter Caruana (who was the then Leader of the Opposition), announced he was stepping down as leader and taking up a backbench position until his 4-year term was over. Caruana declared that he would not fight the next election and will be stepping out of politics completely. The leadership was contested by two GSD MPs:Daniel Feetham andDamon Bossino. Feetham was elected on 4 February 2013 as Leader of the party by majority vote of the executive. This was the first time a party's leadership was to be democratically contested between two candidates.
Despite the name of the party suggesting that it's asocial democratic party, the GSD has been described asliberal-conservative[2] andcentre-right.[3][4][5] The party supports thecurrent constitutional status of Gibraltar as anautonomousBritish overseas territory and is opposed to any proposal of jointBritish–Spanishsovereignty.[6] The GSD has traditionally been less hostile in its attitude toSpain than its main rival, theGibraltar Socialist Labour Party.[7]
In the 1991 by-election to the Gibraltar House of Assembly, following the resignation of GSD LeaderPeter Montegriffo,Peter Caruana was elected party leader and won 61.81% of the popular vote to fill in the vacant seat.[8]
In the1992 election, the party won 20.20% of the popular vote and 7 seats.[9]
In the1996 election, the party won 52.20% of the popular vote and 8 seats.[10]
In the2000 election, the party won 58.35% of the popular vote and 8 seats.[11]
In the2003 election, the party won 51.45% of the popular vote and 8 seats.[12]
In the2007 election to the newly named (and reorganised)Gibraltar Parliament, the party won 49.33% of the popular vote and 10 seats.[13]
In the2011 election, the party won 46.76% of the popular vote and 7 seats, unable to secure a fifth term.[14]
In the2013 by-election, the GSD candidateMarlene Hassan Nahon won 39.95% of the popular vote.[15]
In the2015 election, the party won 31.56% of the popular vote and 7 seats.[16]
The GSD endorsed theConservative Party in the2015 British general election.[1]
In the2019 election, the party won 25.60% of the popular vote. However they lost 1 seat down from 7 to 6 MPs. This resulted in the Party's MP and Shadow Minister, Trevor Hammond, to be unseated and to be taken byMarlene Hassan-Nahon, who recently formed and lead her own progressive party,Together Gibraltar, during the elections.
In the heavily contested2023 election, the party won 48.15% of the popular vote. They gained 2 more seats, rising 6 to 8, thus returning to become Gibraltar's sole Opposition Party since 2015 (1 seat from the sole TG MP, Marlene Hassan Nahon, who announced a couple months before that she wasn't seeking re-election and was retiring from politics; and the other from TheAlliance's new MP, Vijay Daryanani ((LPG)) ).
Two of their new 2023 candidates, Youseff El Hana (who became Gibraltar's first political candidate from the local Muslim/Moroccan community) & Daniela Tilbury received controversy from their past ordeals during the elections. Both of them were polled low and were not elected into Parliament as a result
Youseff's past social media posts from 2018 gained controversy due to them being seen as "antisemitic" for his references of his support for Palestine for the ongoing decades-long internal and religious conflicts between them and Israel. He apologised for offending the local Jewish community on GBC News during the election campaign but denied the accusations of him attending an anti-semitic Palestinian march.
Daniella Tilbury also received controversy due to her past allegations of bullying her staff and students during her chair and executive roles at the University of Gibraltar, resulting for her to resign from her posts. No formal apology was made during her campaign.
After the General Elections, there was the party’s leadership elections between the incumbent Party and Opposition Leader, Keith Azopardi and his colleague, Damon Bossino, who was appointed Shadow Minister for Housing, Lands & Transport. The former identifies himself as a centrist and progressive GSD MP whilst the latter identifies as a more conservative figure. On December, the results were in favour of Azopardi with 58% compared to his opponent with 42%.
| Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 20,110 | 20.2 | 7 / 15 |  6 | Opposition |
| 1996 | 66,190 | 52.2 | 8 / 15 | 1 | Government |
| 2000 | 67,443 | 58.35 | 8 / 15 |  | Government |
| 2003 | 58,234 | 51.45 | 8 / 15 | | Government |
| 2007 | 76,334 | 49.33 | 10 / 17 | 2 | Government |
| 2011 | 81,721 | 46.76 | 7 / 17 |  3 | Opposition |
| 2015 | 46,545 | 31.56 | 7 / 17 | | Opposition |
| 2019 | 40,453 | 25.55 | 6 / 17 | 1 | Main Opposition |
| 2023 | 86,537 | 48.15 | 8 / 17 | 2 | Opposition |
| Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991[8] | 2,496 | 61.81 | 1 / 1 | New |
| 2013 | 3,927 | 39.95 | 0 / 1 | |
Gibraltar was part of theSouth West England constituency in the European parliament and its major parties formed joint ticket alliances with the major UK parties. From 2004 until Brexit, the Gibraltar Social Democrats were in an alliance with theConservatives.
| Election | Party | SW England | Gibraltar | Seats | +/– | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||||
| 2004 | Conservative | 457,371 | 31.6 | 8,297 | 69.5 | 3 / 7 | 1 | |
| 2009 | Conservative | 468,742 | 30.2 | 3,721 | 53.3 | 3 / 7 | | |
| 2014 | Conservative | 433,151 | 28.9 | 1,236 | 17.2 | 2 / 6 | 1 | |
| 2019 | Conservative | 144,674 | 8.7 | 256 | 2.7 | 0 / 6 | 2 | |
| Name | Term in office | Portrait |
|---|---|---|
| Peter Montegriffo | 1989-1991 | |
| Peter Caruana | May 1991 - January 2013 |  |
| Daniel Feetham | January 2013 - July 2017 |  |
| Roy Clinton (interim) | July 2017 - November 2017 | .jpg) |
| Keith Azopardi | November 2017 – present |  |
| Represented inParliament | |
|---|---|
| Formerly represented inParliament | |
| Formerly represented in theEuropean Parliament | |
| Defunct | |
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