Josie Muscat’s far-right formation Azzjoni Nazzjonali will be holding their first ever annual general meeting in typical secrecy, after deciding the AGM would be closed to the press.
In a fashion contrary to most parties, whose AGMs are open to members as well as the press and counterparts from other political parties, AN informed its members, in writing, that journalists would not be invited to the AGM.
Charles Attard, the national assembly’s chairman, told MaltaToday he took the decision to close the meeting to the press fearing there would not be enough members to make up the party’s quorum.
“Since we have to confirm our statute, we didn’t want members to be scared away from the meeting due to the presence of the press, That way we can be sure to have a quorum for the approval of the statute,” Attard said.
He claimed several of his party’s members for their jobs, some of them ‘high-profile government posts’, would be jeopardised.
He refused claims of lack of transparency: “That’s the bait journalists want to use with us… this is a technical point. We will be sacrificing our ‘10 minutes of fame’ and have to suffer accusations of ‘lack of transparency’ for the sake of our members,” Attard said.
The new party will not even be publicising its new statute, according to Attard, who said he will only hand it to select journalists who request it.
The party has already made its hardline stance on immigration and conservative Catholic foundation clear in its official launch last June. Its national assembly will held at the party’s headquarters in Sliema, where party leader Josie Muscat will be explaining the party’s political vision – although no journalist will be there to report it to the rest of his would-be voters.
Other speakers include the National Assembly’s chairman Antoine Bartolo, and deputy leader Angelo Xuereb.