The Nationalist Party has accepted the apology of a deputy mayor who admitted involvement in "radical right" website www.uliedmalta.com promoting a right-wing activity and does not seem to be planning any action against him.

Asked whether the PN was contemplating to proceed against Alexis Callus, the Nationalist deputy mayor of Safi, party general secretary Joe Saliba said: "Mr Callus was honest enough to admit having made a mistake. That's enough for me. Only Nationalist politicians are decent enough to make an apology".

The Sunday Times reported that the 24-year-old Nationalist deputy mayor of Safi was involved in the publicity of the show of "solidarity" with the Armed Forces of Malta held last Saturday in the wake of incidents in Safi Barracks during a demonstration by irregular immigrants.

Mr Callus said in a statement yesterday he denounced radical rightist policies, condemning "without any reservations, any form of racism, including... racist speeches".

Mr Callus reacted to remarks made by the Labour Party's general secretary, Jason Micallef, on Monday who said the PN should give a clear explanation as to why one of its deputy mayors had been allowed to promote "fascist and Nazi" policies.

Mr Micallef said the PN was expected to condemn or approve Mr Callus' behaviour.

"It is not true that I was supporting last Saturday's protest or the speech given at Safi," Mr Callus said.

Justifying his presence at the activity, Mr Callus said he wanted "to make sure the activity would not exert a bad influence" on the people he represents in the locality.

"From what happened, I understand that joking about racism is a mistake. When people joke about these matters they would unknowingly be promoting them, and this is wrong."

Mr Callus alleged in his statement that a Labour councillor was also present for the meeting in Safi. When contacted by The Times he refused to name the person.

Mr Callus had told The Sunday Times he was not alone in conceiving and running www.uliedmalta.com. A flyer bearing the Ulied Malta (Children of Malta) mark was posted on www.avemelita.com, an internet forum for radical rightists.

The flyer had been posted under the label of "OperazzjoniC3" - a reference to a Nazi-Fascist plan to invade Malta during World War II.

Following reports in The Times that Ulied Malta, a group of "instigators" of radical rightist policies, had publicised the Safi meeting, OperazzjoniC3 announced the temporary closure of www.uliedmalta.com, adding that Ulied Malta would "fight and shall soon be back. We are the active radical right and this will not stop".

Reacting to the MLP statement in Mr Callus' regard, messages posted on the internet forum referred to Labour's criticism of OperazzjoniC3.

According to a profile record on the same website, OperazzjoniC3 is a Nationalist Roman Catholic who lives in the "south west" of Malta and was born on July 26, 1980.

Mr Callus refused to comment when asked if the OperazzjoniC3 postings were his doings.

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