Reform Jersey leader and Housing Minister Sam Mézec has confirmed he will stand for re-election as a Senator this summer – launching his latest election campaign on the 12-year anniversary of his political debut.
Deputy Mézec confirmed today that he will stand as a candidate for the island-wide mandate in the June election.
Announcing his candidacy, he said he hoped to “serve the island again” and help deliver a government capable of confronting what he described as Jersey’s “challenges”.
The Reform Jersey leader said the next administration must focus squarely on three priorities: the cost of living, the island’s deteriorating infrastructure and restoring trust in public spending.
“In decades gone by, Jersey felt like a place that was on the up,” he said, adding that islanders once had “the opportunity to work hard and live decent lives, with good public services and plenty to enjoy here”.
However, he warned that under “successive generations of government” the island now felt as though it was suffering “a managed decline, with little vision for how to get Jersey back on track”, leaving many islanders losing hope or leaving the island altogether.
Deputy Mézec also took aim at Jersey’s long-standing tradition of independent politicians dominating the Assembly, arguing that it had repeatedly failed to deliver meaningful reform.
“Another collection of independent politicians who offer nice words at the election but don’t have a credible plan for how to deliver on it will not be able to fix this,” he said.
“They will talk the talk when it comes to things like reducing wasteful public spending, but as the history shows, they are not capable of walking the walk.”
Highlighting his party’s record during the current term, he said the Reform Jersey team had been “the driving force” behind several key policy advances, pointing in particular to efforts to tackle the island’s housing crisis and provide greater support for families facing rising childcare costs.
“With greater numbers in the Assembly, we can start to fix the causes of our problems,” he said.
Deputy Mézec also defended his own leadership record, saying he hoped voters would judge him as “an effective politician, a decisive Minister and capable leader of a team that is unified and constructive”.
He added that he had “never been afraid to challenge vested interests” in pursuit of policies he believes benefit the majority of islanders.
“I want to use these skills to take Jersey forward and deliver the kind of politics that we need to address the huge challenges we are facing,” said Deputy Mézec.