Peter Caruana
Peter Richard Caruana (Gibraltar, October 15, 1956) is a Gibraltar politician, leader of the Gibraltar Social Democrats (GSD, Gibraltar Social Democrats) and of the opposition in the Parliament of Gibraltar. He was Chief Minister of Gibraltar between 1996 and 2011. He left power after losing the elections of December 8, 2011 against Fabian Picardo, leader of the GSLP-LP coalition, of a social-labor nature.
Biography
Peter Caruana was born in Gibraltar. He is part of the third generation of a family of shirtmakers from Malta. He studied with the Christian Brothers in Gibraltar, continuing his studies in the United Kingdom, in private Catholic schools, first at Grace Dieu Manor School and then at Ratcliffe College, both in Leicester. He subsequently studied Law at Queen Mary College, University of London and qualified as a lawyer at the Council of Legal Education in London.
After his return to Gibraltar, in 1979 he joined the law firm Triay & Tryay. There he met Cristina, daughter of Joseph Triay, the senior partner of the firm, whom he married. Triay, who had been one of the Palomos of the 1960s, headed the Party for the Gibraltar Autonomy (PAG), a party that proposed the integration of Gibraltar into Spain with a broad level of autonomy. In the 1980 legislative elections, Caruana was the party's electoral agent. After the failure of the PAG, Caruana stayed away from politics for a decade. In 1990, Caruana became a partner at Triay & Triay, specializing in commercial and maritime affairs. That same year he returned to politics, joining the Gibraltar Social Democrats, a center-right party that had been created a year earlier by Peter Montegriffo, a former leader of the Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights (AACR). In February 1991, Montegriffo, faced with the prospect of losing his status as a partner in a law firm, abandoned the seat he held in the Gibraltar Assembly and Caruana stepped up to the leadership of the party. In May he won the by-election called to cover the Montegriffo seat, becoming a deputy. In the following elections, in 1992, which saw a landslide victory for Joe Bossano (with 75.3% of the votes), the GSD, Led by Caruana, it became the main opposition party, obtaining 20.2% of the votes and seven of the fifteen seats in the assembly.
In 1995, Caruana left Triay & Triay and, in 1996 he again headed the candidacy of his party. The GSD capitalized on the discontent of Gibraltarians against the government of Joe Bossano and won the elections after a campaign in which it promised to improve the economy and image of Gibraltar and improve relations with Spain and the United Kingdom. The GSD's victory was by a narrow margin (52.7% compared to 45.6% for the GSLP), but enough to elevate Caruana as chief minister (even if he was not the most voted candidate of his party, being surpassed by just four votes by Peter Montegriffo, who had returned to the GSD).
Caruana reaffirmed his victory in the 2000 elections (obtaining 58.35% of the votes against the alliance between the GSLP and the Liberal Party, which obtained 40.57%), 2003 (with 51, 4% compared to 39.7% for the GSLP/liberals alliance) and 2007 (49.33% compared to 45.49% for GSLP/liberals). In all of them he faced Joe Bossano. In 2011 he ran for the seventh time in an election, being defeated by Fabian Picardo (46.76% to 48.88%), the new leader of the alliance between the GSLP and the liberals, and becoming the leader of the opposition.
Political positions
Since coming to power, Caruana has maintained a policy of firm opposition to the claim of Spanish sovereignty over Gibraltar, but in favor of improving relations with Spain, always promoting that Gibraltar must be present and have an independent voice in any conversation between Spain and the United Kingdom that affects Gibraltar. He also promoted the reform of the constitutional relationship between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom, the fruit of which was the promulgation of the new Gibraltarian constitution in 2006, which, according to the Gibraltarian authorities, concluded the decolonization of the former colony. In accordance with this position, Peter Caruana decided that the Gibraltarian government should stop attending the sessions of the Committee of 24.
The opposition to the Spanish claim translated into the rejection of the Spanish-British proposal for shared sovereignty agreed in 2002 and the calling of a referendum that overwhelmingly rejected the proposal. On the other hand, its willingness to dialogue with the Spanish government in matters that had nothing to do with sovereignty was evident in his participation in the Tripartite Dialogue Forum promoted by the Spanish government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero upon his arrival to power in 2004 and in the signing of the Córdoba Agreement (2006).), through which Spain and the United Kingdom agreed, among other measures, to build a terminal in Spanish territory for the Gibraltar airport, located in the disputed territory of the isthmus.
In November 2010, statements by Caruana caused controversy in British territory in which he stated that, if Spain offered it, he would support a solution similar to that of Andorra (an independent country, member of the United Nations, of which the President of the French Republic and the Bishop of Seo d'Urgell are joint heads of State) to resolve the Gibraltar dispute.