Malta nuclear gaffe sends Sicilian MP’s office in a panic
Matthew Vella
A gaffe by the governor of the Sicilian region, Raffaele Lombardo, sent his office in a panic last week after MaltaToday reported his gross mistake when he stated Malta was powered by nuclear energy.
Over the last week, Lombardo’s secretary called the MaltaToday offices to confirm whether or not Malta had a nuclear power station.
Lombardo claimed last week in an interview with newspaper La Sicilia that Malta was powered by nuclear. “Considering the many nuclear power stations in France, Slovenia… even in Malta, just two steps away from us, we should be looking at it clearly and not come to any prejudiced conclusions,” Lombardo said about his drive to build a nuclear power station in Sicily.
“Constructing a nuclear power station in Malta is like doing it in Sicily,” Lombardo said.
MaltaToday’s report on Lombardo’s slip-up was picked up by the Italian media, prompting a statement this week by the MP denying his comments made to La Sicilia.
“I never said that there were nuclear power stations in Malta. The reference is part of a more complex reasoning in which I said that political choices cannot be compromised by prejudices. If nuclear power stations had to be built two steps away from here, in Calabria or in Malta, and the technology was not safe, we would still be running risks here in Sicily,” Lombardo said in a statement released over the weekend.
Lombardo, leader of pan-Sicilian Movimento per l’Autonomia (Autonomy Movement), is part of Silvio Berlusconi’s governing coalition.
He is promoting the creation of nuclear power stations in Sicily, by referendum. “If we explain to the people what it really means, that there are no risks because they are new-generation plants, that the system is less polluting than others energy sources, and that nuclear brings more advantages to the territory, then the referendum can pass.”
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