‘Non-alignment must be retained’

Former Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici yesterday hit out at the government and opposition for wanting to amend constitutional provisions on neutrality, saying no changes in circumstances would justify this.

While admitting that some circumstances might have changed, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said he opposed changes to the neutrality clauses of the Constitution because any amendments would weaken this concept.

“It is true that some circumstances have changed since 1987, when the concept of neutrality was introduced, but these changes do not mean we have to change our Constitution,” he said.

Addressing a press conference, the 78-year-old chairman of the Campaign for National Independence, originally conceived to urge people to vote against EU membership, said the term “non-alignment” in the Constitution was “fundamental” so Malta did not “seem as though it is someone’s enemy”.

“The government and the Opposition are under a lot of pressure from the EU, Nato and the US so that Malta does not remain a neutral and non-aligned state. The EU is developing its own military alliance and Nato is not anymore a defensive military force,” he added.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici went through the Constitution, clause by clause, word by word, examining what the government and Opposition would want to change since he said none of them had gone into specifics.

The CNI, he said, opposed any changes to the Constitution which would weaken the concept of neutrality but was not against including amendments to introduce modern concepts or reforms.

The former Labour leader shot down a proposal by Labour leader Joseph Muscat to create a second republic, saying Malta needed to gain more experience before venturing along this path.

Speaking about the Partnership for Peace programme, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said Malta’s participation was in breach of the Constitution since the programme was part of Nato, a military alliance.

On the worsening situation between Israel and Iran, he said Malta should clearly declare that it was against any military action and it would work diplomatically to resolve the problem.

Asked about the agreement in principle between the government and the Opposition on a constitutional amendment on budget discipline, Dr Mifsud Bonnici expressed doubts about whether the EU really wanted its member states to bring down their deficits and debts.

Had that been the case, he said, the EU should have called on member states to have a surplus, rather than a deficit limit, of three per cent, thus being in a position to reduce their debts.