Arnold Cassola, Alternattiva Demokratika's candidate for the European parliament elections, has accused the Nationalist Party of scaremongering.

AD has asked the police to proceed against six PN officials claiming it was libelled by allegations that Alternattiva is in favour of abortion, which it strongly denies.

Prof. Cassola was speaking at a debate among European parliament candidates on campus on Wednesday organised by the student organisation AEGEE-Valletta in collaboration with the European parliament information office.

His speech later triggered off a debate with PN candidate Simon Busuttil.

Prof. Cassola said the European parliament was a parliament made up of seven parties and it was one of "give and take" rather than "winner takes all".

The debate started off with Labour candidate Owen Bonnici appealing to the students to vote and to join the socialist wave. The socialists, he said, could do a lot for youngsters and people in general.

Dr Busuttil said voters must have one aim: to make our entry into the European Union a successful one.

No party had an automatic right to any vote - the party must earn it, he said. All the PN candidates were familiar with the EU and were capable of representing Malta's interests.

He argued that in order for the candidates elected to be effective, they must form part of the strongest political party in the EU.

Wenzu Mintoff, representing the MLP, agreed with Prof. Cassola that the PN was resorting to scaremongering and his speech attacking the party was quite a contrast to Dr Bonnici's less partisan approach.

PN candidate Joe Friggieri started his talk with the statement "In Europe everyone benefits", which was greeted with much enthusiasm.

He said that "without being partisan one must realise that had it been up to the Malta Labour Party, Malta would not be where it is today and May 1 would never have been a reality".

He then posed the question: "What would have happened to Malta had it been the only one not to join the European Union when in today's world many non-EU countries are knocking at its doors begging to come in?"

He stressed that one must take advantage of the great opportunities that the EU can offer and that when people decided whom to vote for they should think of the people who worked so hard to give them what they had today.

Damian Iwueke, an independent candidate, said his campaign would address minority issues such as women's rights, gay rights, xenophobia and racism. People, he said, were fed up with the typical political parties that adopted the "do as I say but not as I do" attitude, telling people what they wanted to hear and then forgetting all about them after the election.

Labour's Louis Grech said the MLP was democratic precisely because once Malta was in the EU it was putting forward its own candidates to stand for election, which demonstrated acceptance and democracy. He said the candidates elected must be effective and capable of contributing to making it work.

The PN's Roberta Tedesco Triccas spoke last, saying that one thing that AEGEE had always managed to do was to bring the two sides of the political spectrum together. There was no need for the PN and MLP to attack each other.

She said she had decided to stand as a candidate for the PN because she believed that EU membership must be a successful one.

'Low level politics'

Labour Party general secretary Jason Micallef yesterday condemned the Nationalist Party's attacks on Alternattiva Demokratika.

AD announced on Tuesday it had asked the police to initiate criminal action against PN officials and representatives of its media following claims that it was in favour of abortion.

Mr Micallef said Labour did not agree with such low-level politics and it condemned the insinuations.