The petition to block a referendum on spring hunting cannot be ignored by the government because it has been signed by almost 100,000 people, Parliamentary Secretary for Planning Michael Falzon told The Sunday Times of Malta.
Dr Falzon was asked to comment in the wake of the announcement made by the Hunting Federation (FKNK) that it will present its petition to Parliament tomorrow evening.
FKNK President Joe Perici Calascione said that Dr Falzon, who is also a hunting enthusiast, had accepted their invitation to personally deliver the petition to Parliament. He added that the Nationalist Party had not yet said whether one of its MPs was willing to take up this offer.
While the federation left everybody in the dark over the number of signatures it had gathered, saying only that these numbered “thousands”, Dr Falzon was more specific.
“Ignoring some 100,000 signatures would smack of arrogance and of somebody not in touch with reality,” Dr Falzon said.
It would smack of arrogance and not being in touch
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has repeatedly said that the government has no intention of blocking the referendum in spite of declaring himself in favour of spring hunting. Asked if the government would consider moving amendments to the Referendum Act in line with the arguments being made by the hunting lobby, the parliamentary secretary declined to comment further.
A PN spokesman said that no Opposition MP would be present to receive the FKNK petition along with Dr Falzon.
He said that the party would have preferred to hold an internal debate within its parliamentary group before this petition was presented in Parliament.
The FKNK petition was launched last December soon after the announcement that a group of NGOs and Alternattiva Demokratika had collected more than 30,000 signatures to force an abrogative referendum on spring hunting.
This prompted the hunting lobby to launch its own petition calling for a proviso in the Referenda Act so that “interests, rights or privileges enjoyed by a minority” would be excluded from this legislation.
Though the signatories of the FKNK petition included minors aged between 14 and 18, the federation fended off criticism by saying that these amounted to less than one per cent of the total collected.