Opposition leader Alfred Sant yesterday explained that the time frame needed to negotiate a partnership deal was not the point - it could take an hour or 10 years as long as the deal struck was in the country's best interest.

In a one-to-one interview with Lou Bondì, televised on Super 1 TV, Dr Sant insisted that 'partnership' existed and the party had its own contacts within the European Commission.

"We will negotiate a 'partnership' and it will take as long as need be. That is why I say an hour or 10 years because we will never surrender the country's national interests," he said.

"If we manage to conclude it in a short time then well and good. But we're not going to imitate Dr Fenech Adami who raced through the negotiations to get onto a certain bandwagon," he said.

"When a new Labour government is democratically elected, the European Commission will reiterate that it disagrees with us, but I am sure they will negotiate a 'partnership' deal with us."

The programme was put on schedule after Mr Bondì complained during a televised press conference at the Labour Party last Saturday that he was not being given the chance to ask any questions.

Although Dr Sant and the Labour Party boycott programmes by Where's Everybody, which produces Mr Bondì's programme Bondì Plus, as it accuses the company and its presenters of bias, Dr Sant did not hesitate to challenge Mr Bondì to a programme on Super One.

During the programme, Mr Bondì also asked how Dr Sant expected the public to trust him to implement the electoral pact when he had made several U-turns on important matters, such as local councils, VAT and the Gozo Ministry.

Dr Sant answered that the local councils' decision followed the emergence of a jarring democratic deficit which the party felt could only be addressed by contesting the local elections.

"On the issue of VAT I have to say that I still think it's not a good tax system, but the country cannot handle any more shocks so we decided to keep it to maintain stability," he said.

On his recent U-turn to have a Ministry for Gozo, Dr Sant said that the party felt the island needed to be developed as a region so a ministry now made sense.

Dr Sant was also questioned about his tactics during the referendum campaign where he mentioned several companies by name and warned employees to question how they would be affected by EU membership.

The same companies later came out and publicly declared that they had restructured and were eager to see Malta in the EU as they would be positively affected. Among these companies were Marsovin and Delicata wineries.

"The owner of Marsovin himself told me face-to-face that he would face problems with membership. Same with Delicata - I have an interview with the owner where he said that the way the government negotiated was disgraceful."

Mr Bondì questioned whether these people were therefore liars saying one thing to Dr Sant and then publicly saying the complete opposite.

"I am telling you what they told me. You are forcing me to reveal this information," he insisted.

Dr Sant was also asked if he had remained 'cool and relaxed' when horrible incidents, such as Tal-Barrani, the murder of Raymond Caruana and the frame-up of Pietru Pawl Busuttil, took place in the 80s, when he was president of the MLP.

"Of course not. But, one of the things I suspect, and what I believe is confirmed, is that there was manipulation by people within the Nationalist Party and others to create tension in the country," he said.

"I believe there were several efforts to manipulate incidents to destabilise the government by using a number of agents to provoke," he reiterated.

"Before the incidents of Tal-Barrani and Raymond Caruana, under the leadership of Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, the Labour Party had a democratic advantage over the PN. When these two incidents occurred, this advantage dissipated," he said.

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