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The man whom many view as the PN’s answer to Manuel Cuschieri says he is ready to work with Labour MEPs if he gets elected
David Casa does not like being compared to Manuel Cuschieri, the Labour Party’s propaganda guru, but that’s how a lot of people view him, even though the IVA movement he formed part of prior to the EU referendum used to say it was above partisan politics.
“They’re wrong,” the 36-year-old bachelor from Gzira replies to those who compare him to Cuschieri. “Let me tell you the difference. On radio I obviously had to change my tone. I couldn’t speak technically on radio because a lot of people wouldn’t understand so the message had to be as simple as possible.”
That’s another way of saying he treats the people like idiots.
“No, absolutely not. The EU is an ongoing process, you can never say you know everything, so you can’t say ‘Directive nr. 156 of 1996 says’ … you can’t talk like that, not even to the people who know a lot about the EU.”
The point is that Casa’s “tone” is blatantly partisan on his radio programmes.
“Well, I was never sued for libel except once by Alfred Sant on the case of Zeppi l-Hafi, which has nothing to do with the EU, and I believe I’ll win that case.
“In two and a half years I was never stopped by the Broadcasting Authority; I used to let a lot of Labourites speak freely in my programmes, and I never let Nationalists offend the Labourites.
“Yes, I attacked the Labour party’s actions, I attacked the way they used to argue about the EU, but I never attacked anyone personally. That’s what distinguishes me from Manuel Cuschieri.” he said as his aide and friend Andre Carbonaro, a disgraced former government official looks on.
Now that Casa has been confirmed by the PN as one of its candidates for the June European Parliament election he has stopped broadcasting his radio programmes. Will he be exporting this confrontational attitude to the EP, if he gets elected?
“When it comes to ideas there will always be confrontation. God forbid we end up not confronting each other because it would be the end of democracy. But of course I’ll be working with the other Maltese MEPs in Malta’s interests, irrespective of their party. I won’t work with the Socialists on their proposal to stop overtime…despite the MLP’s scaremongering about the end of overtime if we join the EU, it is the Socialists who want to limit overtime…so I won’t cooperate on that with them.”
The MLP is actually calling for an opt-out clause to that directive.
“Yes but we still have to see how this issue is going to develop. It is still too early to say that opt-out clause will be accepted.
“My point is that while we’re going to be elected from the PN’s list and we’ll be working within a larger political group (EPP), we won’t forget we’re Maltese and we have to work with the other Maltese MEPs.
“We have to work as a team with all the elected candidates from all parties, even the independent ones because otherwise Malta will lose.”
That is a bit rich after all these years of partisan polarisation.
“We always appealed to the MLP to join us in the negotiations, we are still calling on the MLP to participate in MEUSAC.
“Only the MLP was absent in the negotiations process. The invitation was always open and the MLP never accepted it.
“It is only now that Labour is accepting the EU, so we can actually work together, although I hope there’s a common policy within the MLP about the EU.
“I worry when I hear the Opposition leader say that we got trapped in an alley and we have to get out, or that we have to change the agreement – which is impossible. There are still conflicting statements coming from Labour.”
IVA used to say it was above partisan politics and in fact now there are people who are disappointed to see Casa and Joanna Drake, and Simon Busuttil (ex-MIC), contesting with the PN.
“In our campaign until the referendum we didn’t form part of a political party. The aim was to launch a national campaign, not a partisan one. When, after the referendum, Alfred Sant showed he did not accept its democratic outcome, then we started calling on the people to vote for that party which would respect the referendum result. Nowadays IVA no longer has a role, so when the PN called us to contest on its list we had no problems accepting, as much as we were free to contest with the MLP or as independents. We obviously chose the PN because it is consistent about the EU.”
Labour MP George Vella had challenged the IVA activists to declare they were not interested in getting a job in Brussels, that they weren’t campaigning to get the cushy jobs there. IVA activists had refused to make that statement and with hindsight one can understand why.
“George Vella is the last person who can talk about the EU. He used to call MEPs ‘Taliban’ and insult European Socialists…only until a few months ago, not a decade ago, and now he’s there with them as if nothing happened. The PES was non-existent for the MLP.”
Is it true IVA was financed by the PN?
“No it’s not true.”
That the PN channelled thousands of liri to the movement?
“No, not from the PN.”
There are rumours that IVA used to get around Lm3,000 every six months.
“Whoever says so is misinformed.”
Did the movement keep audited accounts?
“Yes we did, and we had some problems about finances in the sense that there were divergent views within the movement about whether we should have had part-timers employed, on the campaign and how our resources had to be used. At the end of the day I think the IVA movement’s campaign was a great success. The direction we took gave results.”
Who financed the movement?
“We were financed by the public, by some businessmen and by people who believed in our campaign.”
Would he publish the audited accounts?
“It’s not my duty to do that. The movement as a whole can decide to do that. We have receipts for every penny we spent and we all know where the money went.”
Has the account been closed?
“Not yet. The funds are in a bank account under the responsibility of the treasurer. I spoke to Joanna Drake and we decided to distribute them to a children’s institution.”
Casa boasts years of experience in foreign policy. He was, in fact, one of Guido de Marco’s protégé at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, handpicked by de Marco himself when he was a bank clerk at Bank of Valletta in 1989.
“I was there when Malta applied for EU membership until we joined the Union. This was a very valuable experience in my career because I saw diplomacy working at its best. There were the ups and downs, the difficulties to get the EU to accept us as members, the difficulty to persuade the people that it’s the best choice, and also the positive outcomes of those years of work.
“As MEUSAC secretary I could follow the negotiations with the EU closely and what the different sectors wanted from membership, and this is still an ongoing process. Unfortunately the MLP is still absent from MEUSAC despite its declaration that it is ready to face the new reality. I will use this experience for the good of the Maltese and Gozitans.”
Does he feel comfortable in a party that opposes fundamentally divorce, gay rights and abortion?
“First of all, the PN does not oppose gay rights,” he says briskly.
“It opposes abortion, yes, and even I oppose it. As regards divorce, the PN does not really oppose it, but it looks at the value of keeping the family united.”
I tell him that in doing so, it is ignoring the reality of an increasing number of broken marriages and of separated couples who would like to start a new family.
“Well, the EU does not interfere in that and these are issues that have to be decided by the Maltese. The union will never impose anything of the sort.”
So he’s foursquare behind the party on these issues, right?
“I’m totally comfortable. We have a democracy within the party; everyone has freedom of speech and the party acts upon the will of the majority. The PN is not made of a handful of people that dictate everything. I abide by whatever is decided democratically by the party.”
And what is he promising to deliver as MEP? He cannot promise favours, that’s for sure.
“Of course not.”
Unexpectedly, he obscurely shifts the discussion back to the IVA movement. “There were some very influential journalists who asked me to do them favours that were illegal and because of that we had some big problems within the IVA movement,” he says cryptically.
“God willing I’ll talk about that after the election because I’m dying to speak out about what happened. My problem is that I don’t have my own newspaper to write all that, but anyway, one day I’ll speak about the serious problems I faced because of the favours someone was demanding of me.”
What is he referring to? Is this some form of blackmail?
“No, not at all… I’m not blackmailing you for sure.”
Then why doesn’t he just say what he has to say?
“I’ll speak after the EP elections.”
Returning to the original question, Casa says he would like to be involved on the environment and social policy committees. The first one is a tough issue for Malta.
“I know, I know. It’s a challenge.”
And will he be lobbying to try and get exemptions for Malta from raising its environmental standards or is he going to make sure the country gets in line with the environmental acquis and that the government delivers?
“I believe that the EU will help us introduce the necessary laws in our countries. Look at Maghtab. We’ve left that dump grow for years and now because we’ve joined the EU everyone is talking about it. Now we have to strike a balance between what the EU is all about and Malta’s particular circumstances.”
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