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Matthew Vella
Lino Farrugia may have done more harm than good to a lobby many once believed powerful and strong enough to determine the sway of the national elections. Allegedly commanding the influence of 17,000 licensed hunters and trappers, the Secretary of the Federazzjoni Kaccaturi Nassaba u Konservazzjonisti may have just revealed what kind of numbers the hunters truly have to scare off the parties from playing heavy-handedly with them.
Farrugia’s 3,119 votes have left him unfazed. As the candidate with the highest number of votes of all the independent contestants, he is most of all satisfied to have garnered more votes than other political party candidates: Wenzu Mintoff, former Green party chairperson now turned MLP candidate, was surpassed by Farrugia in the early counts; PN veteran Michael Falzon also met comeuppance after pooh-pooing Farrugia’s candidature when he claimed hunters had more to gain from voting for the Nationalists. He garnered 130 first preference votes less than Farrugia.
Farrugia claims most of his votes came from the voters who traditionally voted PN, a theory which confirms the sway of the PN protest vote to Alternattiva Demokratika and the independent candidates, but of course not to Labour, which got 14,000 votes less than the last general elections.
However, Farrugia remains confident hunters will rally to his side when their sport is threatened by any political party or government: “I don’t think it shows the real power of hunters. They will still be there to defend their sport. Nobody can deny the power of 16,000 licence-holders. All the parties care about are votes. Hunters are voters too and parties are going to be aware of this.”
Despite his efforts to minimise the damage done, Farrugia’s efforts to prop up the strength of hunters did not come through. If the FKNK Secretary was reputedly banking on the support of 17,000 hunters and trappers to confirm what sort of opposition the government could expect when Article 9 comes under review, it was this election that could have given him the chance to prove their power.
A keen supporter of the full implementation of the Birds Directive is BirdLife Malta. Its president, Joe Mangion, believes the hunting and trapping issue does not affect the outcome of elections in Malta. “We have time and again called upon Maltese political parties to refrain from being pointlessly held at ransom by the hunting lobby.”
According to Mangion, public opinion polls show there is a strong lobby against hunting and trapping. “Sensible politicians should heed this fact. BirdLife Malta is committed to seeing the Birds Directive fully implemented without exceptions or derogations and will continue to work towards this end.”
Likewise, Alternattive Demokratika Chairperson Harry Vassallo is of the opinion that the EP election has confirmed the lack of political weight hunters have: “It is clear that the government and opposition have been blackmailed by a few hunters… it means we lost all that time during the EU negotiations because of the fear of hunters who are nothing but ghosts. It’s unbelievable: in the environment chapter we had separate negotiations for hunting. It would have been better if we focused on people’s health or on retaining the plastic bottles ban.”
Farrugia claims both the MLP and the PN ran ruthless campaigns against him. However, he was surprised that the Green Party did not antagonise the hunters’ vote, which of course would have proved to be a rallying point for hunters:
“I expected more attacks from Alternattiva Demokratika. There were no attacks at all, and they said nothing about me. All I can say is that I pushed forward what I believed in, and I used my vote correctly. Despite the strength of the parties, there was nothing to choose from. Of all candidates, Arnold Cassola is the one with the most experience as in terms of the European Parliament.
“After this campaign I realised that the two big political parties don’t want to lose the power they have. The parties harmed me as much as they could, but even hunters are still inclined towards red and blue. Labour candidates badmouthed me, even l-orizzont, the GWU daily. In-Nazzjon refused to let me advertise on the newspaper, and as independent candidates we weren’t given any time or space.”
The hunting vote has been an endemic feature of the Maltese electoral scenario for years and one which has even threatened such life-or-death issues as was the EU referendum in 2003.
But after so many elections in which the main political parties pandered to the hunters for their favour, even signing agreements with the FKNK to award them money, land or guarantees they would not curb their sport, it looks as if the hunting lobby has been finally sussed out. And with a more clear picture of hunters’ political dispositions, it would seem the days are numbered for Spring hunting, until now kept on the life-saving machine that is ‘Article 9,’ a derogation that allows hunting in Spring but that has to be renewed yearly at the discretion of Brussels.
Lino Farrugia is well aware of the fate of Maltese hunting in Spring, which traditionally allowed the hunting of thirty species of birds of prey crossing from Sicily into Tunisia in Autumn. The EU’s Bird Directive abolishes hunting in Spring, but Article 9 has allowed for a restricted amount of turtle dove and quail to be hunted.
However that derogation has to be renewed every year, and it is the EU that has to grant permission for the Maltese government to implement this derogation. Brussels’ Ornis Committee can object to renew the Directive.
The European Parliament has already expressed its opinion in April’s monitoring report on Malta that notwithstanding the derogation, the Maltese government will have to fully implement the Directive, which means no hunting in Spring. Considerable cross-party voting from socialists, the popular parties and the greens on having Malta fully adopt the Directive means it could only be a matter of time when hunting in Spring is abolished.
matthew@newsworksltd.com
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