It is the duty of politicians to take a clear position on spring hunting and make their opinion clearly known to the people, AD chairman Arnold Cassola said.

In a statement, he referred to Oppositon leader Simon Busuttil's declaration that politicians should stay out of the debate since the decision rested on the will of the people in a referendum.

Prof. Cassola said that while it was clear that the issue would be decided by the people in the referendum they asked and worked for, politicians were there to make their principles clearly known to everyone and to be clear about what they stood for.

“Sitting on the fence and keeping mum about important national issues is tantamount to admitting that politicians have abdicated from their responsibility to stand for values and principles," he said.

Deputy chairman Carmel Cacopardo said AD had always been clear: since its foundation 25 years ago, it campaigned for spring hunting to stop.

He said that Malta was in the current mess because of backroom deals between the hunting lobby and Nationalist and Labour parties and this mess could only be clearly by popular vote through an abrogative referendum in the coming months.