Alternattiva’s Arnold Cassola is being named as the most likely new leader for the Green Party, as the incumbent chairperson, Harry Vassallo, is preparing to step down while the commission set up to analyse the election result is finalising its report.
The former MP in the Italian Chamber of Deputies and ex-secretary general of the European Greens has said he is “available” for the party but would only talk specifics once the election commission reaches its conclusions.
“I’m available for the party, according to its needs,” Cassola said yesterday when contacted by MaltaToday. “Right now the first priority is to analyse the commission report, see what the future for the party should be and what directions we should be taking. We have analyse what our weaknesses are, our strengths, and what needs to be changed to make inroads within the present electoral system.”
A professor in comparative literature by profession at the University of Malta, Cassola will be returning to Malta soon after he failed to be re-elected to the Italian parliament in the Europe constituency with La Sinistra Arcobaleno.
Although he got the highest number of votes on the constituency, Cassola still failed to make it to his second term given the left-wing coalition’s failure to get elected to government.
Himself one of the co-founders of AD, Cassola has made a name for himself at the heart of Brussels coordinating the European Greens between 1999 and 2005.
In 2004, he achieved a staggering 9.33% of first preference votes in the European Parliament elections, registering his best result ever in Maltese politics and just failing to be one of Malta’s first five MEPs to be elected to Brussels.