Edward Demicoli unfazed by hunters' boycott

Nationalist MEP candidate Edward Demicoli said he will not be intimidated by the Federation for Hunting and Conservation's (FKNK) decision to boycott him.

FKNK has urged hunters, trappers and their families not to cast a single vote for Mr Demicoli in June's European Parliament Elections, after he publicly denounced spring hunting during the launch of his electoral campaign last Sunday.

"If the hunters' association believes it is going to shut me up, it had better change strategy because it will not work - I will continue to push for spring hunting to be stopped," Mr Demicoli said, reacting to the directive.

The FKNK insisted it was "ironic and shameless" that Mr Demicoli, who held the position of deputy head of the Malta/EU Information Centre (MIC) for the past 10 years, chose to attack hunting during his campaign launch.

He "conveniently" forgot and totally contradicted the information that MIC had "enlightened hunters and trappers" with prior to the EU referendum vote.

The FKNK said this proved that every single hunter's vote in favour of EU entry in the referendum was based on misinformation and consequently, Malta's EU membership was based on a hoax.

Mr Demicoli countered this by saying such statements showed that the federation was still "living in the past" and was still failing to understand how a democracy worked. Such claims were harming the hunters' cause.

He said the truth is that had the FKNK exercised control on "certain hunting elements and rogue hunters", the hunting situation in Malta would be different.

Contacted by The Times, Mr Demicoli said he saw "no contradiction" between the present scenario on hunting and trapping in Malta and the information published by MIC when he was its deputy head.

"I'm very proud of my work with MIC," he stressed, explaining that MIC's role was to provide information on the negotiations going on at the time.

"We explained exactly what was negotiated," Mr Demicoli maintained. "The goalposts shifted" three years later, following a case in Finland, he said.

The present situation was a result of disagreements in interpretation, which the EU Commission and the government dragged on until 2007, Mr Demicoli pointed out.

Hunting in spring was supposed to continue for turtle dove and quail, he maintained, as was originally negotiated.

In its statement, the FKNK quoted from statements published in a MIC Fact Sheet entitled, Hunting and Trapping Enthusiasts, which said: "...hunting in Malta is mostly practised in spring because it depends on migratory birds. The EU acknowledged these arguments and Malta will be able to retain hunting in spring and autumn even after membership."

It continued: "...hunting in spring can continue in Malta for turtledoves and quail. As a result, therefore, after membership Maltese hunters will continue to be able to hunt in spring."

The federation said this was the first directive issued as it launched its MEP election campaign with the slogan FKNK - For Your Rights in Europe. The federation is not excluding fielding a candidate in June's elections.

In the last MEP elections, Lino Farrugia, FKNK secretary, had contested as an independent and garnered 3,119 votes.