Arnold Cassola Arnold Cassola chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika, was born in Sliema, Malta. He is an Associate Professor in Comparative Literature at the University of Malta. He has taught at the Universities of Catania (1981-83) and Roma "La Sapienza" (1983-88). In 1999 he was elected Secretary General of the European Green Party, the only non EU citizen ever elected as Secretary General of any European Political Party. He was also a Local Councillor in Swieqi.

In 2004, Cassola ran for MEP elections and obtained 9.4% of first count votes (23,000 that rose to 29,000 after subsequnet prefences).

Arnold Cassola is the author/editor of over thirty books on the history, literature, language and culture of Malta as well as of books on Green politics in Malta and Europe. He is the author of scores of academic papers in various countries.

Apart from Malta, he has studied and worked in Italy, Belgium and Switzerland.

Arnold is fluent in Maltese, English, Italian, French and Spanish, and has a good working knowledge of German and Arabic.