The irregular migration issue is back on the agenda after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat threatened to push back migrants to where they come from, Libya, and also to use his veto on unrelated issues in the European Council.
Of course, the issue is a delicate one and not easy to solve but the only rational solution is a political one and not one that entails the use of verbal or physical force. That is why the European Greens are asking for responsibility sharing, solidarity with countries like Malta and a revision of the Dublin Convention.
Muscat’s behaviour has been irresponsible. He has wilfully misled the Maltese people once, twice, three times last week by making a good number of them believe that he could defy international law and push back the migrants into Libya. The end result is humiliating and scary: not only has Muscat been forced to swallow his threats but, hopefully without him even realising it, he has also contributed to kindling racist and xenophobic statements among certain groups of people.
The push-back policy is not a new one. In 2008, Italy Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, from the Lega Nord party, started implementing it, to the great satisfaction of the majority of Italians who – Mario Ballotelli, Fiona May, Andrew Howe and other famous athletes and personalities apart - had had enough of being surrounded by – let’s say it – migrants with a different skin colour who were escaping from harsh conditions in their home countries.
Knowing that a good number of Maltese today feel like the majority of Italians in 2008, Muscat is pandering to the same type of similar-racist phenomenon, comforted by the fact that this will increase his votes. Trading the destiny of dark coloured irregular migrants for an increase in votes is well worth it, Muscat might think.
But, apart from getting more votes for your own party, history has taught certain lessons that Muscat seems to have neglected or ignored.
The adoption of the push-back position by Berlusconi brought about an isolation of his government and people (60 million Italians) by the majority of EU governments, who ended up ridiculing the Italian Prime Minister in public. The most assiduous in the public ridicule of the Italian Prime Minister were his PPE colleagues Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy.
Moreover, the European Court of Justice condemned Italy for its violation of international law. This led to further isolation of the Italian government on the international front. And, at the end of it all, in 2013, the Berlusconi government was voted out... by the very same voters who, five years earlier, had welcomed vociferously the push-back position.
Muscat is also threatening to veto any possible issue at the upcoming European Council meetings. Of course, this is legally possible. But, again, history teaches us some lessons.
The veto has been rarely resorted to because of the political retribution that many times it inevitably brings with it. The last politicians who threatened to use the veto, in a very Muscatish pseudo-patriotic tone, were the Polish Kazinski twins.
According to The New York Times, the twin politicians, “frequently put Poland on a collision course with its European partners and Russia while polarising voters at home with a shift to the right”.
Lech Walesa, former President of Solidarnosc fame, adds that their “approach is to first destroy and then think about what to build”.
It seems that Muscat would like to imitate the macho Polish pair, forgetting that their political line was severely punished in the 2007 election and, again, in the last election in 2011, both won by their rival Donald Tusk.
History has taught certain lessons Joseph Muscat seems to have neglected or ignored
What Muscat has not told the Maltese is that, in 2012, the Maltese government accepted €18 million from the EU in connection with projects related to migration issues. In the past 11 years, Malta got €130 million. Well, if he really means business, he should return the money to the EU and not accept anything this year from countries that are egoistic enough not to help Malta in its moment of need.
Another thing: why is it that Muscat is threatening to use his veto on unrelated matters when he only abstained on the vote that threw out burden sharing a few weeks ago?
Why did he not have the guts to vote against then? Is this not to irk his 10 Socialist Prime Ministers who are giving their Maltese colleague and the Maltese people the cold shoulder?
The 10 socialist EU governments that are not showing solidarity with Malta are the ones led by François Hollande in France, Enrico Letta in Italy, Elio Di Rupo in Belgium, Algirdas Butkevicius in Lithuania, Robert Fico in Slovakia, Helle Thorning-Schmidt in Denmark, Pedro Passos Coelho in Portugal, Victor Ponta in Romania, Werner Faymann in Austria and Borut Pahor in Slovenia.
Muscat should pull the Labour Party out of the Party of European Socialists if he really wants to be consistent and to put his actions where his mouth is.
arnoldcassola@gmail.com
Arnold Cassola is chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - the Green party.