Alternattiva Demokratika’s two top officials, Carmel Cacopardo and Arnold Cassola, will contest the upcoming European Parliament elections, the Green Party announced yesterday.
At a press conference, AD general secretary Ralph Cassar said the candidates represented the consistency of the party’s mantra – Magħna taf fejn int (You know where you stand with us).
Prof. Cassola said the party had remained consistent on most social, economic and environmental issues and would continue to do so if elected to the European Parliament.
Asked whether the selection of the two candidates reflected a lack of new blood in the Greens’ ranks, Prof. Cassola insisted the choice showed they had put their best foot forward.
“We are realistically gunning for one seat. Two would just be presumptuous. With this selection I believe that seat is attainable,” he said, adding that electing candidates exclusively from the two main parties would leave Malta out of the EU’s green lobby.
“There is a whole debate that Malta will miss out if we stick to electing candidates from the Nationalist and Labour parties only,” he warned.
The bi-partisan nature of local politics, he said, had run amok with many important issues. “Protests are filled with Opposition politicians. Take the recent environment protest for example: it was full of PN members and not a single Labour official. The opposite was true at the previous rally a few years back,” he said.
Mr Cacopardo said the European Parliament was the best forum in which to fight a variety of international environmental issues.
“Just last week a Sicilian Mafioso was charged with dumping toxic waste off the coast of Sicily.
“This affects Malta directly. We need to have a presence in the European Parliament to work on these issues,” he said.
If elected, a green MEP would lobby for the outright abolition of spring hunting in Malta, Mr Cacopardo stressed.
“We are currently collecting signatures for this and will work within the European Parliament to see this realised.”
Mr Cassar also announced the upcoming Green primary, which will feature two members of the European Green Party being selected to run for leader. Prof. Cassola said that unlike the Socialist and conservative blocks, the Greens believed in civilian participation.
“The two other groups will nominate a leader internally. The Greens, however, are giving this decision to the people.”
The online voting system is available to any EU resident above the age of 16 and is open from today until January 28 on www.greenprimary.eu.