On which side of the fence is AD councillor?

Żminijietna - Voice of the Left welcomed the result of the Irish referendum on the EU Treaty. "A victory for democracy and for a social Europe" was the opening line of a press release published recently by this left wing movement. The statement further added that the treaty "includes various neo-liberal policies that will further jeopardise economic and social gains of the workers and the peoples, whether through the liberalisation of markets, the primacy of competition or the monetarist policies that do not take into account growth and employment; or by dismantling and privatising public services".

Some readers might perhaps be questioning what am I trying to get at here. Don't Żminijietna have a right to their own, albeit misguided and factually wrong, view?

In a democracy all opinions, as factually incorrect as they may be, should be tolerated and indeed I am a person who believes in everyone's democratic right. While I believe that Żminijietna's comments about the Lisbon Treaty are nothing more than the traditional anti-EU banter bandied about by the likes of Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, his friends at CNI and the eurosceptic machine, they have every right to pass such statements. However, what I found particularly interesting was the author of the above press release. To my great surprise it was signed by Michael Briguglio.

Mr Briguglio, it seems, is both the PRO of Żminijietna and a councillor in the name of Alternattiva Demokratika on the Sliema local council. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Alternattiva Demokratika highly pro-European Union? Isn't it the party now under the chairmanship of Arnold Cassola, a man who likes to portray himself as more pro-European than any other politician in Malta? Isn't Mr Briguglio's position therefore highly irregular and contradictory to the party which he represents on the council?

Mr Briguglio has every right to be sceptical about the Lisbon Treaty and to cheer at its demise which will deny us our sixth seat in the European Parliament, however to have such a position and at the same time retain his position within Alternattiva Demokratika proves only what I have long claimed: that AD's chief principle is simply doing anything to rip votes off the PN and the MLP no matter what it will take! How sad.