It is no wonder that so many people have become so disenchanted with local politics. The reason for our outburst against Labour or, more precisely, against the Labour leader, a few days ago, when he misled his supporters over our stand in the matter of Marin Hili, pales into insignificance compared to his outrageous statement over abortion at a party political conference last Sunday.

Dr Sant was reported saying that the government was so obsessed with joining the EU at any cost that if the EU were to set abortion as a condition for joining, the prime minister would accept. As justifiably expected, the government reacted swiftly and strongly to Dr Sant's uncalled for comments.

It had every reason to. Dr Sant projected Eddie Fenech Adami as an unprincipled person when the whole island knows that throughout his political career he has made it his mission to emphasise the importance of keeping to our traditional Christian values and principles.

When, in June, the European Parliament came out with a report recommending that abortion be made legal in all EU present and future member states, the Maltese bishops immediately expressed concern over this. The government lost no time in coming out with a declaration saying the EU had no right, or the competence, to impose a position in favour of abortion on its members. European Parliament resolutions were not legally binding on member states.

The government said it had always maintained a strong position against the legalisation of abortion both in Malta and in international fora. More than this, it assured the bishops that it intended continuing showing determination against abortion once Malta joined the EU.

It had remarked: "In this way, it would be giving faithful witness to Catholic beliefs and values as encouraged to do by the Pope. The government also feels that Maltese MEPs would be able to do the same in the European Parliament". This is how strongly the Maltese government felt about the matter.

Clearly, the Labour leader spoke in the way he did to emphasise the party's line that the Nationalists would be prepared to go to any extent in order to see Malta joining the EU. To extend this line of argument to the point of saying that the party in government would even betray its own principles over such an important matter as abortion in order to get the island into the EU is unacceptable and quite unjustifiable.

The government, obviously offended by the Labour leader's remarks, said Dr Sant's statement was most defamatory and broke all the limits of decency expected of a person in public life. "One would have to have lost all sense of values to come up with such a deceitful calumny while knowing it to be untrue."

The government went on to say: "Any Maltese who treasures democracy should feel worried that the opposition leader has made it his life's mission to make a mockery of the truth and of any sense of decency and morality on which public life is built."

This is a most important stage in the island's history when the people expect to see from their leaders strong political direction. Labour risks losing further credibility in the eyes of the electorate if it continues to resort to unacceptable political tactics.

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