The political mood in St. Vincent and the Grenadines could not be more tense. Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, the five term Prime Minister of the multi-island nation was struck in the head at an anti-government protest on Thursday, August 5th, as some protesters who began getting violent, pelted his entourage. He was left bleeding profusely and with a concussion, reportedly. He's reacted by condemning not just the thrower of the missile, but the "back room authors" of "violence against my person". SVG police later searched the homes of prominent figures in the main opposition party.

The main opposition, the New Democratic Party (NDP) had already condemned the attack on Gonsalves, now in his seventies. It, along with unions, organised the march against a planned government policy on mandatory testing or vaccination for some state employees. But the march was larger than any one specific issue. Some were against the policy. Some were against vaccination. Some are reeling from the overlapping volcano and Covid crises and how the government has handled itself since. Others still see the governing party as illegitimate, it having won the last election in 2020 although it lost the popular vote.

In this episode we get fair perspectives on what led to the wounding of the SVG Prime Minister and how things in St. Vincent are likely to develop. The host is Kieron Murdoch. The guests are:

1. Dr. Dalano DaSouza, Assistant Lecturer in Economics at the UWI Cave Hill. Vincentian. Co-host of the ‘A Lawyer & a Policy Analyst Walk into a Bar’ podcast. This podcast raises awareness about Caribbean economic, political, legal and social issues in a way that any citizen can understand.
2. Jomo Sanga Thomas, attorney for the Public Service Union (PSU). Former senator. Political and social commentator in SVG.
3. Dr. David Hinds, Associate Professor of African and African American studies with a concentration on Caribbean and African Diaspora Studies at Arizona State University. Currently in his home country of Guyana.

This programme first aired on NewsCo Observer Radio 91.1 FM on August 8th, 2021. Get the latest news from Antigua and Barbuda at the Antigua Observer online.