Malta Today
This Week Sport News Personalities Local News Editorial Top News Front Page This Week Sport News Personalities Local News Editorial Top News Front Page This Week Sport News Personalities Local News Editorial Top News Front Page


SEARCH


powered by FreeFind

Malta Today archives


Interview • June 06 2004

 


Arnold the Green

Alternattiva Demokratika’s candidate for the EP election, Arnold Cassola, says this time round voters are liberated of the constraints surrounding Maltese elections

The man whom the Nationalists tried to portray as an advocate of abortion in an attack reminiscent of right-wing ideologues against Communists in the Cold War era is upbeat about his chances to get elected to the European Parliament.
“This is a different election,” Green candidate Arnold Cassola says. “It’s the first time voters are liberated from the partisan chains that have surrounded general elections so far, where the attitude of the two major parties has been that of winner takes all. I’m confident that I will do very well. I’m very upbeat about the support that Alternattiva and I are getting, but of course one must not be complacent. We have to remain with our feet on the ground and we must work until the last minute to ensure we get all the votes possible.”
A different election indeed, although the ruling Nationalist Party used the same old dirty tricks with its former pro-Europe ally in a bid to scare voters off Alternattiva.
“It must be a trait of Nationalist leaders,” Cassola says. “Normal people don’t do that. It is the Nationalist leaders’ mentality that they must take everything – the winner takes all. Apart from being a very base attack, that was the moment when I started thinking that we could really make it.
“It was the best sign that the PN’s polls were giving me a strong possibility of being elected. So while it was a very base attack, on the other hand it gave us all more courage, it was a sign that we were nearly there. It gave us even more of a fighting spirit.”
The abortion scare was the latest dig at Cassola. Simon Busuttil and other PN spokesmen said Cassola had a conflict of interest as Secretary General of the European Greens, representing a group made of MEPs in favour of abortion. Did he ever feel he had a conflict of interest?
“Not at all, because I made my position clear immediately when we formed the European Federation of Green Parties in 1993. We tried to change the statute, we proposed an amendment to the statute but were outvoted. Apart from the fact that the Greens are not for legalising abortion but for decriminalising it, which means not sending women to jail. That is the Greens apart from the Irish, the Poles, the Slovaks and the Maltese who have their reservations about it. We tried to change it. I was outvoted – one against 18 – I proposed eliminating the whole paragraph calling for the decriminalisation of abortion.”
How did the European Greens react to his position?
“I think that’s how I earned my respect, because they know that I can stand up for what I believe in. I have no problems standing up to Joschka Fischer saying, “I disagree with you, Joschka.” I lost on that vote but I gained respect. It’s much better than keeping your mouth shut, or playing the shady double game of speaking one way when you’re abroad and another when you’re in Malta. That kind of hypocrisy is not my cup of tea.”
Is that what Malta’s Commissioner Joe Borg is doing?
“I think, again, Joe Borg would be in the same uncomfortable situation with the big difference that I stated my position in writing, even when I was elected on the committee of the European Greens. I said “thank you very much for putting your trust in me, but please keep in mind that I do not agree on abortion and I can never represent the Greens on abortion.” I think this is a problem which everyone is going to face in Europe. Whether you’re Socialist, Green or Christian Democrat, we’re all in political families which are European. And in all families, the Danish, Swedish and German mentality is not the Maltese or Greek mentality, so each group is going to have diverse opinions. If I had been Joe Borg, when interviewed, I would have said I am definitely against abortion, I would vote against it, then of course being in a commission of 25 I would have to respect the will of the majority.”
After AD’s electoral fiasco last year, what would his position be if he doesn’t get elected this time?
“What you call an electoral fiasco was the biggest success for us. First of all it was a year with four elections: We won the referendum, we got 6.1 per cent in local councils on the same day, and I was elected unanimously for my second term as Secretary General of the European Greens.”
Yes, but what about the general election?
“The general election was not a fiasco in the sense that I feel we gained the respect of the Maltese. That is going to come out in these elections. Numerically you can define it as a fiasco, but remember, we gave our heart for Malta; Harry Vassallo, myself and all of us at Alternattiva Demokratika.
“We asked the Maltese and the Gozitans not to vote for us. We asked the Maltese to give us number two, because we knew that was a crucial vote, we knew that Malta’s future was at stake, we knew that the future generations of Maltese depended on last year’s election.
“We were extremely conscious of this and we were extremely responsible in not asking for the number one vote. The result was also a consequence of that. Now, the numerical fiasco will be translated into a reward this time when there are no longer any constraints, fear, and winner-takes-all attitude. There’s no government or EU membership at stake, for the first time.”
A good number of people who say they are going to vote for Cassola are disgruntled Nationalists. Is there any problem with the Labourites?
“No, I don’t think we have any problems with the Labourites. The problem is that the Labourites, or a good number of them, might not be voting at all. So that is a major problem. And I think there is a parallel problem for the Nationalists – who may express their dissatisfaction by voting, and maybe voting for me. There are also a few Labourites who will be voting for me, I think. We’ll see.”
But there does seem to be a traditional trend of pale blue voters feeling more at home with AD than the reds.
“The traditional trend was what? Something between 0.7 and 1.7 per cent (voting for AD). I think this is going to change this time. This is the first free election for Malta since Independence. It’s the first time that as a Maltese I’m not worried either because of Mintoff or bulk buying or free trade.
“Remember that all our elections up to now could have meant radical changes to our lifestyles. It could mean changing from a free market economy to a state-controlled economy. The same on foreign policy: it could mean North Korea or the European Union. All our lives, at least for fifty-year-olds like me and even forty-year-olds have been conditioned by this. And remember, we have always voted for a two-party parliament, where 1,000 to 3,000 votes are crucial to win. This is the first time that people are liberated from all this.”
Still the absolute majority of Maltese voters do not vote for Alternattiva. They do not want an alternative party.
“First of all let’s wait for the results. Secondly, of course, I don’t expect Alternattiva to become the majority party. What we need is a good foothold to start creating awareness on the need for a third voice and why not, fourth, fifth voice in this country. We’re just replicating the European model after all. We’ve joined the EU, and as we go along it’s inevitable that we start taking up EU patterns in politics. Now it’s all a matter of speeding up the process.”
Why has Alternattiva stopped talking about the need to have divorce introduced in Malta? Is it afraid of losing votes?
“No, not at all. We have not stopped talking about it, it’s in our programme. You don’t have to emphasise things all the time. Europe is not a question a question of forcing Malta to introduce divorce or whatever.”
Is AD still as convinced as when it first started calling for divorce?
“It’s in our programme. It’s there. We don’t have to keep hammering things in.”
There are those who say they need divorce now.
“OK, they should put pressure and use all means to get it.”
And Cassola would be four square with them?
“These are sad stories, it’s not a nice thing when you see a marriage breaking up, but I would vote in favour (of divorce).”
To those who ask him why they should vote for him, Cassola comes up with a simple equation.
“Two Nationalist MEPs can influence some 280 EPP members, and three Nationalists can still only influence 280 MEPs. Two Labourites can influence some 200 Socialists, and three can still only influence 200 Socialists. One Maltese Green can influence 50 votes in Malta’s favour. Zero Maltese Greens means losing 50 votes in Malta’s favour. That’s the main reason why people should vote Green. This election is not for a parliament of two but for a parliament of at least seven parties where nobody can pass any Directive, any Law, without the support of at least another two or three parties.”
But apart from voting power and numbers, in his campaign Cassola is surely meeting people who are complaining about economic stagnation and unemployment. What is he promising them?
“That’s where we’re saying we can put together work and the environment,” he says. “We can create new jobs and the investor can make money out of the clean-up which our country has to go through. We can try and turn our big environmental problems – solid waste, liquid waste, quality of our sea and drinking water, as well as air quality – we can turn this into a new opportunity, creating new jobs, and also making money.”
And how can he help from the European Parliament? Such a distant institution…
“Well it’s distant, but remember it’s going to start legislating about 50 per cent of our laws. Half of our laws will be decided in Brussels. When we were talking about implementing the Acquis, those famous 80,000 pages…they’re not 80,000 anymore because they increase everyday. There’s always something new being implemented. This time we will be in the decision-making process.
“We will be able to influence the new Directives of the EU, so that is a very important process. For us, work and environment go hand in hand and that is also why we are saying let us not shun away from all the problems we are facing. We have to face them anyway.”
One cannot say Cassola is not familiar with the European Parliament, having served in Brussels as Secretary General of the European Greens for the last four and a half years. One can maybe say that he was quite far away from Malta. Is he in touch with Maltese reality?
“I think I’m quite in touch. I mean coming every month means that you are in touch and it doesn’t mean you don’t discuss Maltese affairs on e-mail. E-mail is one of the positive aspects of globalisation. We are an e-mail away from each other. So you’re following the news, what’s happening in your country, and I’m here physically every month.
“This is going to be the situation of MEPs. This is Joe Borg’s situation isn’t it now? Is Joe Borg cut off from the Maltese situation? I wouldn’t say so. It’s a new reality which maybe I anticipated really before Malta entered the EU.”
Tonio Borg attacked the Greens for wanting to impose a tax on tourism. That would hardly help Malta’s ailing economy, would it?
“Tonio Borg was very disloyal and incorrect, and he was not the only one to say so. We do not want to increase taxes on tourism. We want to shift tax from labour onto pollution, which is after all a principle that is adopted – and probably Tonio Borg doesn’t even know it – by the European People’s Party.
“It is a Green principle which is now adopted even by the Christian Democrats, and, if I may, John Dalli in his last budget, also dedicated a whole page and a half of his budget speech, to the introduction of the polluter pays principle.
“And what about the tax at the Malta International Airport one month ago, 9c per person passing through the airport? What’s that? It’s a tax on tourism, it’s a tax on people passing through the airport, that the government is imposing.
“The difference with our proposal is we want to shift taxation from labour to pollution, so we propose decreasing taxation for employers. If an employer employs a 45-year-old who is unemployed, retrains the person, gets him off the unemployment list, he should get tax rebates, he should get benefits.
“If a hotelier builds his hotel according to the best specifications, best standards, health and safety for his workers, respects the environment and so on, he should be helped out, but on the other hand if a hotelier takes public land, builds illegally, throws his sewage directly into the sea then no, he should be penalised.
“Remember that we are paying millions and millions a year on our health bill. Remember all the people who go to St Luke’s and get medicines for free, the thousands of hours spent at St Luke’s by people suffering from allergies, from respiratory diseases, lead in the blood, nitrates in the blood. Why? Because we did not take care of our environment.
“Now what Tonio Borg probably doesn’t know too is that while the Maltese government has put this levy on each person passing via the Maltese airport, there is also a draft law which will be implemented after 12 June, which is going to start charging waste collectors a fee for the licence to collect waste. What is this? Isn’t that another tax on polluters and on tourists? Twenty per cent of our waste is produced by tourists.
“The idea behind our proposal is that such taxes collected have to go into environmental projects. They have to be used only to upgrade the environment, which will in turn mean a better quality for the tourists coming here, and not as is happening now, that taxes are collected and you don’t know where they end up. We want accountability and transparency. Also, people would pay less unwillingly if they knew that their money was being well spent. The big problem of this country is mismanagement of public finances.”
Can he do anything on this from the European Parliament?
“The environment is one of the biggest issues in the European Parliament and in the EU.”
And what about transparency and accountability?
“That’s one of the main reasons why we wanted to join Europe. Today, since 1 May, each Maltese citizen can write directly to his minister, his commissioner in Europe. If as a consumer you have a problem about competition, fair trade, just write to mario.monti@cec.eu.int, and the commissioner has to answer you within 10 working days, and they do answer you.
“That is the difference - we are able to bypass Castille. It will be the EU who will ask the Maltese government what it’s doing, because if we are using EU money, it is the Danes, the Swedes, the English who are paying taxes to finance our projects, and they want to know where their money ends up.
“May I also remind you that there are measures to help stimulate the tourist industry. I’ve been asking this question for a month now and I’ve been given no answer from the government. The EU has given a concession to the 10 acceding countries, because of their bad economic situation, to have a lower VAT rate on labour intensive services till the end of 2005.
“This would help the self-employed and SMEs, including those in the tourist industry. So we have the facility of, for example, of decreasing VAT on restaurants from 18 to 15 per cent or 12 per cent. But the 10 countries had to apply by 1 May. Has the Maltese government done so? That is my big unanswered question.
“The same with the Schengen funds. Because of the Schengen agreement, we have to adapt our structures at the airport and frontiers. There was a fund for all 10 candidate countries to get some help in this regard. All the accession countries applied for these funds except Malta. Don’t ask me why, but I think it is damn foolish to have these opportunities and not use them.”
Apart from himself, who would he like to see elected in the European Parliament?
“I would like to see level-headed people who can work for the country, but who can also be innovative in their proposals to the European Parliament. Sometimes when you hear candidates you get the impression we’re an employment agency. Everybody speaks as if he were a Malta Enterprise representative trying to bring work from Brussels. We cannot bring work, we can create the premises for policies which help to foster work.”
But he gives no names.
“There are certainly names of people I will not vote for, but others I will, of course.”
Any place for independent MEPs?
“It’s not up to me to decide. It’s up to the voters to decide who they want to vote for. In my case too.”

 

 

 





Newsworks Ltd, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 02, Malta
E-mail: maltatoday@newsworksltd.com