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The Malta Labour Party has finally woken up from its strategically comatose stance on Malta’s EU membership.
At least the weekly cartoon published last week on the party’s official online newspaper, maltastar.com, shows some signs of recovery.
In what is an otherwise bland caricature of stereotyped PN supporters tal-pepe, the cartoon suggests that if Labour, formerly anti-EU, had been in favour of “full membership”, it would have taken over the country.
“Labour wanted ‘Partnership’ ‘n got 3 seats. What if they wanted full membership from the beginning,” a tea-drinking lady is seen asking the other lady. “They would ‘ave buried us, dear.”
Indeed, that’s what a good chunk of the pro-EU voters (not just tea-drinking lades) who wanted a change in government have been saying for the last couple of years, but Alfred Sant’s obstinate, outright opposition to EU membership gave them no choice but to vote PN in last year’s election. Had he been in favour of “full membership”, perhaps over the pledge to strike a better deal with the EU, he would be prime minister today.
But it had to be the EP election victory to wake up the Labour leader and his pundits. It must have also been a good tonic for the maltastar editor and Sant accolyte, Joseph Muscat, himself one of the elected MLP candidates who will be leaving shortly to Brussels. Good luck with your new job, Joe.
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