It is “inevitable” that an anti-EU political movement will be created if the two major parties fail to stand up to Brussels, according to Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.
But the ex-Labour Prime Minister, who heads the Campaign for National Independence, ruled out transforming the anti-EU pressure group into a political organisation.
“I do not exclude participating in this new movement but I am not young anymore,” he said.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici, 79, said CNI urged individuals who have the national interest at heart to militate against the EU within their respective political parties.
“But I do not exclude that, if the parties shun this internal debate, there will be a time when a political movement is created.”
He was speaking yesterday at a press conference to criticise the European Commission for going back on its pledge to help in the relocation of irregular migrants from Malta.
He said the Government should withdraw financial solidarity it showed debt-stricken EU members and refuse to cooperate with Brussels after the European Commission ditched its commitment to implement burden sharing in migration.
“The Government should refuse to send the fingerprints of migrants to a central EU database and give migrants who want to go to other members states the freedom to do so,” he insisted, adding this was necessary to safeguard the national interest.
Making statements reminiscent of a far-right politician, he warned a large concentration of migrants would create “social discord”.
Migrants were a burden on the country’s financial and health resources, posing a threat to the labour market, he added.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici said Malta had an obligation to save migrants who were in distress but “had no obligation to keep them here and integrate them”.
He said migrant solidarity groups should stop telling the Government to integrate migrants and instead campaign for the free movement of migrants across the EU.
CNI had collected signatures two years ago urging parliamentarians to stop illegal immigration to Malta, he added.
“But a petition with 29,000 signatures never made it to Parliament because the Whips of both sides had refused to bring it forward,” he said.