A ‘Yes’ vote for spring hunting is a positive choice in favour of mutual respect and tolerance, Yes campaign spokeswoman Kathleen Grima said this morning.

Speaking during a public dialogue organised by the Yes campaign in Birkirkara, Dr Grima said that Yes voters respected the regulated activities of others and did not seek to abolish them.

“A ‘Yes’ vote is also a vote in favour of enjoying equal rights in the European Union,” she said.

Dr Grima said that the declarations by the ‘No’ campaign on democracy insulted the people’s intelligence.

The people’s choice on April 11, she said, was for respect for those who practiced their recreational activity within the law or for the elimination of a right enjoyed by Malta as an EU state.

She referred to the ‘No’ campaign’s claim that spring hunting was contributing to higher taxation and said the cost of both the application of the derogation and the enforcement during the hunting season was covered by the license and other fees paid by the hunters on an annual basis.

The people, she said, were still expecting the ‘No’ campaign to explain how much this referendum would cost the taxpayer.

The people, she said, were paying for the stubbornness of Alternattiva Demokratika who were pulling the strings of the ‘No’ campaign to impose its agenda from outside Parliament.