Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday took to Twitter with a stern warning that the referendum was the hunters’ “one last chance”, while Opposition leader Simon Busuttil called for maturity.

“The people have decided and PN fully respects the decision,” Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil tweeted soon after the preliminary results showed a win for the Yes camp.

The tweets by Dr Muscat and Dr Busuttil, who had both said they would vote Yes to maintaining spring hunting, were soon followed by harsh criticism of the Maltese electorate’s decision.

While international social media users waited with bated breath for the guillotine to fall one way or the other, international news agencies such as BBC and The Guardian announced a victory for the hunters.

Twitter’s feed was soon replete with #maltaslaughter, while many others took a dig at Malta’s favourable tourism figures, calling on other social media users to #boycottmalta. “Tourism 15% of Malta GDP. Let’s hit them where it hurts,” Blue Planet society, which has 88,000 followers, tweeted.

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