Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Doctor Ubaldus Raymond, asserting that the Saint Lucia Labour Party has gone to the gutters, told a ruling party meeting Sunday that the opposition party is at an all time low.
He was addressing a ruling United Workers Party (UWP) meeting in Micoud.
Raymond said he is not surprised because the style of the SLP represents the character of its leader, Philip J. Pierre.
He disclosed that at times he feels sorry for ‘that leader’ and explained why.
“This leader followed Kenny Anthony for twenty years, to the point where I believe that Kenny Anthony emasculated Philip Pierre. Philip Pierre right now has no balls and for that reason, he doesn’t know if he is going or he is coming,” Raymond declared.
“And that is what Kenny Anthony does to his boys. That is what he does. He keeps them quiet. He keeps their tail in their behind and now they believe they have a voice? They have no voice,” the minister asserted.
He expressed the view that currently, the Labour party is trying to determine its strength and vibrancy by opposing everything the Allen Chastanet administration does.
“But you know friends, I can say to you that I am proud of where we are heading because we have taken this country from the mess that we found and we are seeing growth and development in the last two years.”
Raymond said when the UWP came to power in 2016, there was an unemployment rate of close to 25 percent, whereas today it stands at close to 20 percent.
He noted that youth unemployment was nearly 43 percent, but currently it is close to 38 percent.
“We did not experience any positive growth under the Labour party – in fact, we had three years of negative growth. But under this new administration, we are experiencing growth of 3 percent. I know some of you have said 2.5, but you are going to read the IMF report that just came out – it talked about 3 percent,” Raymond told the gathering.
“It did not take us surprise because we knew exactly what we are doing when we put our manifesto together,” he explained.
Declaring that the policies of the UWP administration are working, Raymond urged party faithful not to allow the SLP to cause them to lose focus.