EP elections ‘a phantom national election’ - Muscat
Charlot Zahra Azzjoni Nazzjonali (AN) leader Josie Muscat has lambasted the way in which the two major political parties have treated this election as if it were a general election, when there were more important issues at stake.
Addressing a press conference yesterday morning at the party’s headquarters in Sliema, Muscat said: “Unfortunately, the PL/PN leaders have decided to treat this election as a nationwide election. In fact they are treating is as a phantom national election.”
Muscat remarked that “as usual, the two main parties were arousing partisan sentiments to get people out to vote, not so much to elect five MEPs to the European Parliament but more to claim that one of them has won.”
Muscat contended that the main parties were distorting the purpose of the elections. “It looks as if one of them is going to be elected Prime Minister and the other one is thinking that something will change.
“In reality, things will remain the same – the government will remain in place while the Opposition would stay where itis now.”
The only thing that will change, according to Muscat, “will be the five MEPs that are attending in Brussels. This is a pity, because we consider it as a very serious election, and not simply a political football.”
He accused political parties of preferring to do this, “because the people do not know how the EP works and the importance of the EP today and how it is already affecting and will continue to affect our daily lives in this country.”
Over half (57%) the laws enacted by the Maltese Parliament were directives and laws emanating from the EP.
“If the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, then almost all the most important laws that affect our daily lives will originate from the EU,” the AN leader insisted.
The truth was, Muscat said, “that the PL/PN have no criticism of the European Union, but only praise. They have no reservations whatsoever and there are no things they wish to change in the EU.”
Muscat claimed that the main political parties have “shamed the EP” with the type of campaign that they had conducted.
“They are telling the people that the most important thing is whoever wins in partisan terms, rather than the capabilities of those people that we need to send to the EP,” he insisted.
He called on the Maltese people to put the national interest before partisan considerations in the 6 June elections.
“They should look at electing those people who are capable and have a vision,” Muscat insisted. “They should look at the track record of these people and elect MEPs who are able to stand up in the EP to the other 739 members to get the best deal for Malta,” he added.
Malta should elect people “who are capable of telling Europe that what is good for large EU Member States might not necessarily fit for Malta, a small island in the Mediterranean,” the AN leader charged.
“If the EU feels that it needs a lot of migrants to take the jobs nobody else wants, it might not necessarily mean that we need the same amount or proportion of them,” Muscat claimed.
“Our problems are different and we should have the courage to stand up and declare what is in the national interest,” he added.
“We have to elect people who stop ‘shooting’ at each other; insulting each other as to how many EP sessions they attended and how many they failed to attend, how much they slept, how often they were absent, how often they failed to press the right buttons, and their voting inconsistencies,” Muscat said.
“We hope that the Maltese people have learnt their lesson and five years from now, we do not have the same accusations which we have seen in the past few days and weeks in the media and in the papers,” the AN leader added.
AN had always been consistent in its statements, both during the electoral campaign as well as before it started.
“We have never danced to the tune of the moment,” Muscat concluded.
Muscat complained about how the local council elections had “completely disappeared” from the 6 June 2008 electoral campaign. “We pay a lot of lip service to the importance of local councils, however in reality the big parties have diluted their importance,” he insisted.
He accused the main political parties of amalgamating the EP elections with the local council elections “to force people to go out and vote for the local councils as well. We will see what the people will say about this,” the AN leader declared.
AN was against the participation of political parties in local councils, and that was the reason why AN did not field any candidates for these elections.
“My personal experience is that as they stand now, local councils are a huge waste of money,” Muscat, an outgoing Marsascala independent councillor, charged. “AN has proposed the aggregation of local councils into Regional Councils.
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