Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo is optimistic his party will win at least one seat in parliament in the upcoming election. Once this happens, the reluctant big parties will be willing to talk, he tells Herman Grech.
You say Alternattiva is aiming to elect up to four MPs. Many would argue that this is nothing more than wishful thinking.
I'm confident we will elect MPs in this election. The number of people who say they will vote for another party but would like to vote for us is truly enormous. If those people voted for us then I think four MPs is a very reasonable number.
The polls do not appear to be reflecting what you're saying - they practically say AD is irrelevant in this election.
There's a five per cent margin of error in every poll, which is an average taken in the entire country. We are dealing with 13 separate elections with different identities. With a three per cent average we could have 10 per cent in one district and one per cent in another, which we probably do. We know where we perform best. We have adopted a completely different technique to other elections. I've been going around door-to-door since May.
And what do people tell you?
That they want to vote for us.
And you believe what they tell you?
Yes.
Are they merely disgruntled with the main parties or do they believe in your policies?
They find us extremely attractive. This is the politics they've always wanted. Many of them still live in fear and what we want to do is kill the beast - this is what the other parties don't want. They don't want to eliminate fear from Maltese politics.
Do you think any party will win an absolute majority in this election?
The indication is that both parties believe they won't and that's why they changed the electoral system last October.
What percentage of votes is AD aiming for?
The percentage is not what we're aiming for. We know we won't be able to achieve the full percentage of support in the current distorted playing field. Remember, in 2003, we encouraged our core supporters to vote for somebody else (PN). That's not going to happen again. What's important is that we elect somebody. In 2004, we got 23,000 votes in the EP elections and shattered the barrier then - now we hope to walk through the wall.
But don't you fear that that same 2004 result will actually prompt people not to vote for AD this time round? Remember, your party cost the PN its third seat in the European Parliament.
Labour elected another member because the Nationalists did what they have been doing since the 1960s when they tried to eradicate Herbert Ganado by block voting. If the Nationalists wanted to prevent Labour from electing a member, they should have voted for Arnold Cassola further down the list. In this election I hope we will have a huge range of cross-party voting. In our target districts, the number one preference is crucial but we also need votes further down the list - even number 16!
So you're hoping to get into parliament by default.
If we had a system where we had two to five per cent as a threshold, we would already be there.
Do you think you can get more than five per cent of votes nationally?
Yes, definitely.
What is your prediction?
I was unable to predict our 9.4 per cent in 2004. I won't try this time.
In which district do you see AD's electoral fortunes?
We've always been strong in the 10th district, although Swieqi has now been pulled out of it.
If you form part of a government coalition with a majority of just one seat in parliament, wouldn't that be a recipe for instability?
Why isn't it a recipe of instability whenever we've had a government of 33 seats?
Because they all belong to the same party...
Don't you think that it would be our ambition to have far more (members) in the next parliament? We would certainly not be the element that causes instability. We'd want to take that government to its full term and make it extremely successful.
Do you guarantee that AD would stick to the same coalition for five years?
It all depends on our coalition partner. I think every coalition depends on parties not going against the core principles of their partners.
Isn't a government which relies so much on the power of one seat a threat to democracy in a way? You would be holding the balance of power.
That's a very poor understanding of democracy and coalitions. In any coalition you have the dilemma of whether to compromise your principles or whether to cause instability. Those are the two extremes. You would only do so when pressed - the rest of the time you want to deliver. Living together is certainly not easy but this is something we'd like to start. This country lives in absolutes - it's either good or bad. We want to show people that we can do more if we do it together - if we can tap a wider range of resources.
Would you refrain from voting against anything in parliament other than the sector you're responsible for?
What happens normally is that you form a programme of government, which you never vote against. Then there are the things that crop up along the course of an administration. Certainly, we would not propose things which our partner would object to. And I feel very comfortable with the idea that our partner in government would avoid the issues they know we would object to.
Such as...
... building a golf course in pristine garigue areas. Everybody knows that if our partner makes such a proposal it is trying to push us to resign from the Government.
Exactly - a recipe for instability.
No, it's a recipe for checks and balances, which we haven't had. Most of this country lives in fear of a repetition of the 1970s and 1980s where you had a one-party government running amok in a spectacular way. We've had a one-party government without any sort of control for the last 20 years. The result is the environmental deficit that the Prime Minister spoke about. It was caused by his party because it refused to listen to anybody. I think the fact that there is a presence to make it necessary to take account of people's concerns is a guarantee for a much more careful and attentive government.
Automatically the Government is going to be held to ransom by one or two MPs.
No. It will be held in check. The Prime Minister can call an election whenever he likes, he can reshuffle his Cabinet - he can do anything he likes. We've had a long series of dictatorships. Some of us feel they haven't produced the best they could have. We need to be able to instil a sense of criticism. As it is, our only moment of criticism as citizens are those few seconds when we drop our vote.
You call it a dictatorship. Many would say it's stability - it's a five-year programme dictated by the same party.
I don't see anybody emigrating to North Korea. Libya is very close. I don't see anybody emigrating there. You can have stability in such countries. But it's not what the Maltese want for themselves.
Would you actually describe the recent leaders in this country as dictators?
Divorce was introduced in this country in 1975 but only for the rich who can afford to travel abroad. Ask anybody who wanted to get divorced what he thinks.
I'm assuming you'd want to assume responsibility for the environment portfolio.
We are not insisting on anything of the sort.
Would you demand a Cabinet post?
I think our supporters would certainly be glad. The people who voted for us would want us to take responsibility.
What if the ruling party shoots down your demand for such a post?
I want to be optimistic. What I'd like to see is a democracy like the Irish system where the present government is formed by the major party which asked the Greens to join and gave it three ministries in order to give it full legitimacy.
As Labour found out in 1998, one renegade member is enough to bring down a government. Won't people fear a repeat?
They have no cause to fear. Alternattiva is just 18 years old. It's coming of age. It has every hope and ambition to become permanent in Maltese politics. This is not about some octogenarian on his last political fling.
We will certainly not be capricious with our future.
And can you guarantee stability in a coalition?
If the Government were to form a coalition with Emy Bezzina and he wanted to introduce abortion - that coalition would come apart. It depends on your party's principles.
Would your coalition partner be based on policy similarities or on the number of votes you inherit from the respective party?
The second preference votes we get are an important factor. Assuming that both parties will want to discuss the matter with us - we will go back with the results of those negotiations and present them to our members.
Who would you rather work with? Alfred Sant or Lawrence Gonzi?
We would serve our country very well, whatever the election result.
You must know which party you have more in common with.
We have every reason to boast that we are the most firmly committed party towards EU membership, far more than the PN. The Nationalist Party did the bulk of the work to get us into the EU but it has certainly lost its credentials on EU values. The Labour Party is under heavy suspicion that it's dragging its feet and its acceptance of EU membership has been very reluctant. Choosing between them is actually...
... the lesser of the two evils?
No. We want something better. Choosing the lesser of the two evils is extremely bad policy. What we need to do is to bring this country to commit to the values we believe in. Although it appears that the PN has produced an environmental deficit we can take its new-found commitment and make it real. We can take the Labour Party and turn it into a contributor to the EU.
Do you actually believe that a single MP can change a party's policy around?
In five years, commitment to the environment - the AD/PN coalition government will have real environmental credence.
What about AD/Labour?
If we take the bogeyman out of Maltese politics and give every voter the difficulty of choosing between excellent options in 2013, I think we'd deserve a monument.
It is evident that those interested in voting AD are traditional Nationalist voters.
Yes. In 2003, because we campaigned in favour of EU membership we increased our support. We also got more visibility on the PN side and we also lost some people who had affiliations with Labour because we were clearly contradicting their stance. I am glad that in the five years that have gone by we've increased our support. Maybe in the last five years, the Nationalist government didn't deserve support.
Why are Labourites reluctant to vote for you?
I don't think they are. I've met them and they will be voting for us this time round.
Why should they shift to you?
Because we look good to them.
Look good?
We have commitment to ordinary people. We definitely address the detachment of this Government from the concerns of middle and lower income earners. We talk their language. We also talk a language which is not biased on fear.
The Nationalist Party is ruling out a coalition with AD. Does it surprise you?
Sometimes I've criticised the PN for being a compromise factory. They even compromise on principles. For a Nationalist politician to say 'never' is really outside the PN tradition.
Do you trust the PN?
I trust nobody in politics.
Do you think Labour wants to work with you?
Labour has been as haughty as the PN... but in a very silent way.
Could it be because both parties find Alternattiva irrelevant?
They are very pragmatic. We don't have an electoral alliance because both parties hope they will be able to destroy us from now to election day. Once we are elected they would be willing to talk.
Does AD have the necessary people qualified to talk about all sectors?
I think AD has a higher percentage of qualified people compared with the other parties. I don't think we will be going to parliament because we have DJs. There are three of them in the present parliament. We have a headmaster, an educational consultant, an architect, a lawyer... Edward Fenech is more qualified to deal with finances than the Prime Minister or (Parliamentary Secretary) Tonio Fenech.
Are you convinced your policies are doable?
We are the only political party which costs every proposal. We need structural changes to introduce economic impact assessments. The PN would be irresponsible if it acted on some of its proposals. Reducing the maximum tax rate overnight to 25 per cent without an economic study is not serious.
The Government will tell you it has a track record, that it has reduced taxes in the last two years and that there's economic growth to make up for the shortfall.
There's no reason to expect that the economy will grow by more than 7.5 per cent as would be necessary for the €287.5 million (Lm125 million) it would cost to reduce income tax by so much.
Azzjoni Nazzjonali has managed to field more candidates than AD. Did you struggle to find enough people?
There is the question of fear. For me, it has always been something in other people's minds. But for a lot of people it seems to still take courage to commit to Alternattiva as a candidate in a country dominated by the other parties.
So why did a new party like AN gather more candidates?
Evidently, extreme right-wing politics is attractive to some people. It's certainly more spectacular. We tend to be moderate, reasonable and peaceful.
What will happen if AD fares badly?
This has been asked of us at every election. I think we will fare better than ever before. We grew by 1,300 per cent between 2003 and 2004. In 2003 our score was 0.7 per cent. A year later we got 9.2 per cent. That's a record in Maltese politics. We will be here for as long as our message is valid.
What if you reduce your level of support?
The question is whether we are logically and validly contradicted. If there's someone in politics who can convince us we're wrong we won't even bother with the level of support. We'll just walk away.
What if the electorate gives you this message through its vote?
As long as we have a message to deliver, we will always contest the election. We fought enormously to contest the election in 2003 when we were being offered the representation that we were entitled to since 1992 as a bribe - and we refused it.
Could AD be more effective as a pressure group?
If I thought so I would have done it 18 years ago. Do you think I would have wasted my time for so long?