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Speaking to MLP supporters following the traditional May 1 demonstration, Alfred Sant said that as a result of Malta joining the EU, the PN government had led the country into a dead end resulting in an economic and social crisis. He then went on to add that the MLP is committed to get Malta out of this cul-de-sac.
According to Dr Sant’s ‘logic,’ this should lead the people to vote for the MLP candidates at the European Parliament elections on June 12.
This is hardly the first time that we have been told that the MLP’s mission in the new reality in which Malta is a member of the European Union, is to ‘defend’ the interests of Malta and its workers. However, this time the notion that the people made a bad decision as they were tricked by the Government into joining the EU was even more emphasised than was normal in the last twelve months - to the extent of Malta’s EU accession being referred to as a serious mistake, akin to the country being driven into a dead end alley.
This fits in exactly with what l-orizzont columnist ‘Platernian’ wrote in his contribution published on Saturday, the same day that Sant spoke in this manner. This correspondent insisted that the MLP has not yet adopted a convincing European policy adding that the doubts about EU accession prevailing in the minds of Labour supporters are being strengthened by statements and comments that give the impression that the MLP decision to accept EU membership was a half-hearted one as well as by the Labour media that continually stress the negative aspects of EU membership. (Fil-fehma tieghi, il-Partit Laburista ghadu m’adottax poltika Ewropea li tikkonvinci. Qal li accetta d-decizjoni tal-maggoranza u se jsib ruhu skond ir-rieda taghha. Izda hemm hafna li m’humiex konvinti, specjalment ghax ghadhom qeghdin jinstemghu wisq stqarrijiet u kummenti li jsahhu fil-fehma pubblika l-impressjoni li d-decizjoni hija wahda ta’ nofs kedda. L-enfasi kontinwa li ssir mill-mezzi ta’ komunikazzjoni tal-partit jew minn kelliema tieghu fuq aspetti negattivi, fuq kif dak jew l-iehor se jintlaqat hazin, kollha jservu biex isahhu din l-impressjoni.”)
In other words, the MLP is convinced that they - the EU - are all out get at us and poor little Malta desperately needs someone to defend her: the MEPs elected from the MLP list of candidates! As Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi often points out, adopting such a defensive attitude presupposes a danger from someone who is intent on attacking you and your interests. Is the rest of the EU, therefore, the enemy threatening to swallow us up?
Is this hostile attitude the relationship that the five MEPs chosen by the Maltese people should have with the ‘other’ seven-hundred plus MEPs elected by the voters of the other 24 member states?
Assuming that - for the sake of the argument - two or three Maltese Labour MEPs are elected out of a maximum of five, how will they be going about this battle of Malta against the other 720 MEPs? Or is ‘the enemy’ someone else? These questions are ridiculously absurd, but if Dr Sant is to be taken seriously, they are legitimate ones as they logically follow from his basic stance.
Boasting that the MLP was building alliances with European socialists, Dr Sant also claimed that in the past year - that is after the negotiations on EU accession had already been wrapped up - the MLP had worked ceaselessly to safeguard the interests of the workers, the national interest and Malta’s neutrality.
So the EU is not all enemies, after all! The European Socialists who had failed to persuade Alfred Sant to change his rigid position on EU membership during the accession negotiations (ie much before the last twelve months) have now come to the rescue and they can help us whereas when we really needed their help they had been rebuffed by Alfred Sant.
So who is the enemy against whom Malta needs to have the gallant defence of Labour MEPs? Which political group in the European Parliament? Which member state? Or is it Brussels bureaucracy that is all out to undermine us?
Really! When will the MLP grow up and shake off its hang-ups?
Don’t they realise that the real enemy is the one within their mental set-up: the obsession that keeps them stuck in a time warp that precludes them from realising that the end of the cold war has changed the geopolitical situation in Europe and the whole world; and that the European Union practices solidarity between the peoples of its member states who want to move forward together in peace while enjoying a high standard of living and the best quality of life possible?
What are they waiting for before they wake up to the new realities? Yet another humiliating defeat at the polls?
Michael Falzon, a former Minister, is a PN candidate for the European parliament elections. www.michaelfalzon.net
micfal@maltanet.net
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