Peter Caruana - Politics

Politics

Prior to being elected to Government his political career progressed steadily. In 1990, Caruana became member of the Gibraltar Social Democrats. One year later, he became leader of the party and in May 1991 gained a seat in the House of Assembly by winning Gibraltar's first contested by-election. In January 1992, Caruana led his party to the position of official opposition by winning seven seats in the House of Assembly. Finally, in May 1996, he led the party to victory and became Chief Minister of Gibraltar.

The GSD which he now leads, is robustly against any transfer of sovereignty to Spain, but remains in favour of safe dialogue. As Chief Minister, Caruana consistently refused to attend bi-lateral talks between the United Kingdom and Spain as part of the UK delegation, on the basis that the interests of the Gibraltarians were not protected, and he did not want to give any measure of legitimacy to talks over which Gibraltar had no control.

In 2002, he called a referendum on the subject of the proposed joint sovereignty deal, which led to it being abandoned.

In December 2004 the principle of tripartite talks, with the Government of Gibraltar as an equal party with the UK and Spain, was finally recognised, largely as a result of his involvement. This resulted in the Cordoba Agreement which improved communications between Gibraltar and Spain with direct flights from Madrid which subsequently collapsed due to a lack of demand, and in Spain finally recognising Gibraltar's international dialling code, thereby ending a long-standing dispute.

In November 2007 he was returned to office for a fourth term. Under his leadership, the Gibraltar Social Democrats were beaten in the general election of December 2011 by their rival party, the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party, who won said election by 1.2%.