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Kurt Sansone
While the Nationalist Party is orchestrating a scaremongering campaign against Alternattiva Demokratika on the issue of abortion, its prospective European Parliamentarians will be sitting alongside other Christian Democrats who have legalised abortion in their respective countries, shattering the perception that the European People’s Party is an anti-abortionist fortress.
Abortion was made legal in Belgium, Italy, France, The Netherlands and Hungary under governments headed by Christian Democrat and Conservative Prime Ministers
Although the legalisation of abortion does not fall within the competence of the European Union, Nationalist Party functionaries have been spreading rumours that a vote for AD’s Arnold Cassola in the forthcoming EP election is a vote for abortion.
The attack on AD was sustained yesterday by Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg during a press conference at the Nationalist Party headquarters when he insisted that the Green Party would align itself with “Europe’s most pro-abortion” parties within the EP.
“Yes, the European Greens’ policies would be very damaging for Malta,” Borg said. “They are the chief promoters of abortion in Europe and they want to impose taxes on the environment and tourism. They’re more left-wing than the Socialists.”
But when asked about the European People’s Party’s ‘Christian values’ in view of the Conservatives’ and Christian Democrats’ pro-divorce policies, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi ducked the question and cited the protocol signed with the EU stating that divorce would remain a domestic issue. Malta has no protocol on divorce but has one on abortion but Gonzi conveniently ignored to mention the latter protocol, which gives Malta legal certainty that the EU can never change Maltese law on abortion.
On Friday, an editorial in PN daily newspaper In-Nazzjon pointed out that AD and the Malta Labour Party formed part of two European blocs, the Greens and Socialists respectively, that championed abortion.
It is true that the Greens and Socialists in the European Parliament are liberal in their views on abortion but their Maltese counterparts, Alternattiva Demokratika and the Malta Labour Party, have made it amply clear they are against abortion, something, which the PN chooses to ignore completely.
The Nationalist’s campaign against AD was condemned outright yesterday by Arnold Cassola, who reiterated Alternattiva’s consistent pro-life stand.
"My record on this subject is clear and consistent. Within the European Greens I have always made my position clear. I have always voted against abortion within the European Greens. We have no difficulty being consistent with our beliefs at the European level,” Cassola said.
The Green candidate also made a commitment that he will be voting against any motion encouraging the introduction of abortion in the European Parliament.
Green Party Chairperson Harry Vassallo referred to the “whispering campaign” staged by PN functionaries that if people vote for AD they would be voting for abortion. “This is a blatant lie and this is why nobody dares to state this in public. Otherwise they would be sued in court,” Vassallo said.
Similar comments were made by Labour Party International Secretary Joe Mifsud, who reiterated that on the issue of abortion the MLP would not succumb to pressure to legalise it.
“We also stress, according to the party general conference in 2003, that taxes collected from Maltese and Gozitans should not be used to enable abortions to be carried out in other countries,” Mifsud said when contacted by MaltaToday.
“The Labour Party is not like people close to government, who for appearance’s sake adopt a strict anti-abortion stand in Malta and when they are abroad make distinctions between their personal beliefs and those generally held in other countries.
“The Labour Party has always reiterated its anti-abortion stand within the Party of European Socialists and in meetings with other institutions,” Mifsud said.
Although the European People’s Party, the political grouping the Nationalists will be joining in the EP, is against abortion as a solution to unwanted pregnancies, research conducted by MaltaToday shows that abortion was made legal in Belgium, Italy, France, The Netherlands and Hungary under governments headed by Christian Democrat and Conservative Prime Ministers.
The most notable is the legalisation of abortion in Italy, which was introduced in 1978 under the then Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti a long-standing PN ally.
This goes to show that despite the holier than thou attitude adopted by the PN in Malta, not all members of the EPP are rock solid behind the anti-abortionist stand.
kurt@newsworksltd.com
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