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PN candidate Roberta Tedesco Triccas says it is “essential” for the party in government to have a majority in the European Parliament
Twenty-five year-old lawyer Dr Roberta Tedesco Triccas is the youngest of all the  PN candidates contesting for a seat in the European Parliament. However she is as gung-ho as any Christian-democrat (the nice word for right-winger) the Pietà stable can churn out. Unfazed by being fielded alongside so many recognisable faces like Simon Busuttil and David Casa, Roberta says her experience is as valid as anybody else’s in the PN field.
I ask her whether she has been pitched solely for the young vote.
“I don’t think the party needed a young candidate just to get the young vote. The majority of youth voted in the EU referendum last year and endorsed the party in government yet again, so I don’t think a young candidate is needed in any way to get the young vote. I think the party recognised that it would be as valid a strategy as anything to have both new faces and as wide a spectrum of candidates as possible.
“I am the only Maltese who worked in the European Parliament as an assistant to an MEP, as well as working with the EPP for a year. The process of Malta’s EU integration has not been long enough for any other of the EU candidates to have had any greater experience, even though they are older.
“Considering that I have been active in student politics at European level for the past ten years, there was a conscious decision to choose me as a person who has a lot to contribute, having worked in Brussels for so long and having studied European party politics for my masters degree. There is a difference between candidate material and non-candidate material. I think I am valid as anybody else.”
A former assistant to MEP Jean-Luc Dehaene, Tedesco Triccas is in reality the only PN candidate who has had a taste of work in the European Parliament. She knows that the culture shock in terms of politics is going to be great when the newly-elected MEPs enter the European Parliament building: “This is a parliament with seven parties, of which the EPP is the largest, although the EPP alone cannot govern and has to therefore seek alliances with its friends, from either the socialists or the liberals, these being the two parties we usually co-operate with.
“Naturally there are different values between the groups. The parties joining the EPP and the Party of European Socialists from the new Member States are completely different. Many parties joining the PES were formerly communist parties, which were on the forefront representing the USSR in their country. The culture shock will be there when this big family of Christian-Democrat values is faced with parties to the extreme left of us,” she ominously warns.
She makes her case for a PN majority. She says that for the first legislature it is essential to have the party in government obtain a majority of seats in the European Parliament. Since every law and decision taken in the EP is first discussed in the working groups, the EPP, being the largest group in the Parliament, has the majority of the working groups it leads, including co-ordinators and rapporteurs.
“That would make a difference as to the kind of decision that would be taken. For example, the idea that women should be promoted in business would be represented differently by the PES and the EPP. The Socialists would argue for an increase in tax and give state subsidies to women who want to start a business. The EPP would ask for greater business incentives, give funds to the private sector to enable women and young people be able to start their own business…
“If you have three members of the PN represented in the EP, you will have three committees where the Nationalist Party has a voice. If I had to use my brain and ask myself which committee I would want to be involved in, it would be the social affairs committee, because I know that Christian-democrat values in terms of social equality are the best…
“There are 45 members in the EP that are Greens. If you see how that translates into positions of power, it is not very representative. I told Arnold Cassola this recently and he reacted very violently when I told him that both the EPP and the PES have been multi-issue parties for years and have traditionally held governments.
“Try to find a government that has a green party only in power. How much more democratic is it to have a party which is multi-issue? We also cannot automatically say that the only party that defends the environment is the Green party. There is also a need for a balance between public expenditure, respect for environment and business incentives. If you don’t strike the balance that party becomes a pressure group.”
There are some rushed statements. She quotes liberally the ‘Hix and Marsh’ report that has predicted a victory for the EPP in the next elections, a study that was not based on polls or surveys but on an unpublished mathematical formula.
“Yes it is speculative, but previous polls were also used. I did my thesis on this.” She also states that no central and eastern European party has a green party. I ask her if she is sure, and she confirms. However, on checking on the European Federation of Green Parties’ website there are links to the green parties of the Czech Republic’s Strana Zelenych (“it is a breakaway party from the Communist bloc,” she warns), Estonia’s Rohelised, Hungary’s Zöld Demokraták, Latvia’s Zala Partija (Latvia’s Prime Minister is a green) and other green parties from Romania, Russia, Slovakia and even Ukraine.
I am curious about her stand on other issues which are gaining ground in the Maltese political landscape. EU accession has already expanded the conceptual limits of Maltese politics. Many independent candidates are talking of more gay rights and divorce, amongst other civil liberties that are usually found in Europe. These are topics which are never touched upon by the PN, but as a young person, surely she must have an opinion about more liberties in these areas. Does she feel the PN has to adapt itself better to these ‘silent’ demands? Does she think a PN MEP will find it hard to integrate in this new reality of European issues?
“I think there is a big difference between what is European Union jurisdiction and what is not. This is an issue that I, not being a member of the national government, cannot take a position upon. I have my personal opinion but I cannot represent the party as a candidate to the EP when the European Parliament itself has nothing do with something like divorce.”
I ask Roberta if she intends using her candidacy to the European Parliament as a stepping stone to a future political career in the Maltese arena. She pitches no clear-cut intentions of gearing up for the locals, or general elections in the near future: “There is a very big difference between any campaign, including this. I don’t think you could use this campaign as a stepping stone for another.
What can be used as a stepping stone is the fact that I am meeting a lot of different people. In terms of campaigning, that is completely different. This is a campaign which is much more media-oriented, whilst local council elections would be more person-based.
“A lot of people asked me whether this was a natural step for me to take. But I never look at anything as something that could lead me elsewhere in the future. I see this as my duty towards the people in a way, and that’s what I am here for.”
Matthew Vella reporting
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