AD goes for politics of change

With a representation in three political groupings in the European Parliament, Malta would have a stronger voice, Alternattiva Demokratika's candidate for the EP elections, Arnold Cassola, said yesterday.

Addressing a meeting for supporters at the party's headquarters in Sliema, Prof. Cassola called on the other two parties to start behaving more like their European colleagues.

"Despite the great political pluralism in the European parliament, more often than not, the great political families of the European political tradition are capable of reaching consensus."

It was in the interest of the country that a representative for a third party was elected to the EP. A carriage led by three horses, he said, covered more ground and a pluralism of three was better than two.

"In the EP one does not find a winner-takes-all mentality. No directive can be approved in the EP with the support of only one political group."

Prof. Cassola said that during his visit to Malta last week, Pat Cox had pointed out that the EP was made up of minorities. All parties were in a minority and to work well, one had to work with others.

"Hopefully, in two weeks' time, we will be here again not to celebrate AD's victory, but to celebrate a victory for all the Maltese and Gozitans, a truly national victory which would bring about the renewal of Maltese democracy," Prof. Cassola said.

AD chairman Harry Vassallo said AD was offering an alternative to parochial politics and to the current political football that had wasted the country's resources in the past years.

AD has been showing people there was another type of politics, politics which did not stoop low and which respected those who did not agree with it.

AD was proving to be a threat to the old parties which had brought the country's resources to nothing, hindering the development the country deserved.

Twelve months ago, Dr Vassallo said, AD had refused a guaranteed seat in parliament not because it did not want it, but because it did not want to be bought.

It refused to be bought by the power that others, who did not have an idea what values and principles were, killed for. The party was now reaping the results of its success. The Xarabank survey gave AD 9.6 per cent success, showing that its share in Maltese politics was getting stronger.

This was the success AD was always convinced it deserved. Its message was getting there even though it was not on a level playing field with the other parties.

"We do not have the access to media other parties have but we are in politics to serve the people.

"The level playing field in Malta is in trade and importation, not in politics. If AD is elected to the EP, Malta would have embarked on the process leading to a real democracy."

Dr Vassallo said it was worrying that people in a position of responsibility said things which could never be true, such as that votes were not transferable in the country's electoral system.

He said it was more than clear that the PN won the last election mainly because the majority of the Maltese and Gozitan people wanted to join the European Union.

The party has been in power since 1987 and it was dealing with problems created by its own mismanagement and incompetence.

The kind of restructuring carried out at PBS and the shipyards was merely transferring problems from one area of the public sector to another.

Dr Vassallo said that more and more people were joining the green wave of support and this proved that AD was respected and had won over the hearts and minds of Maltese and Gozitan voters.

"A vote for Prof. Cassola is also a vote for a new style of politics. Arnold Cassola's campaign is based on an appeal to voters to vote for their country and not for the party. People are tired of partisan pique. It is time to bring about change," he said.

The meeting was also addressed by Juan Behrend, Secretary General of the Green Group in the EP.

He said: "Arnold Cassola is the best known Maltese in the EU institutions. His election to the post of Secretary General of the European Green Party is a measure of the respect he enjoys within all 31 member parties."