After last week’s wrangling in Brussels, all eyes are now firmly focused on the unfolding events regarding the United Kingdom’s ‘Brexit’ referendum pencilled for June 23. The English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish peoples will go to the ballot in a referendum which is a make or break for Britain and possibly also for the future of the European Union as we have come to know it.
The outcome of this vote will impact all and sundry. Malta will be no exception given our strong links with Britain. Links in a multitude of sectors, be it education, health, imports and exports, financial services, iGaming, pharmaceuticals, aviation and many others.
This without underlining the British incoming tourism which contributes substantially to our economy.
The implications of the ‘Brexit’ referendum took me back to Malta’s contentious European membership poll of 2003. Time has a way of glossing over the details and events that took place a mere 13 years ago. To say it was a challenging time for the government of the day headed by Eddie Fenech Adami is an understatement.
An ever pragmatic Muscat said that he will support David Cameron in his bid to keep the UK in the EU fold
The euro-sceptics, spearheaded by an unrelenting Labour Party, did not budge an inch in their intransigence to refuse membership of the EU at all costs.
The campaign was messy as the then MLP painted terrible pictures of doom and gloom that awaited Malta on its entry into the EU.
Probably most of us have forgotten Alfred Sant’s apocalyptic visions and him happily waving his voting document on the day of the referendum. Most of us have also probably also forgotten that his trusty sidekick at the time was none other today’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
Muscat wrote countless articles exhorting Labourites to vote against membership or at least discard of the voting document in protest.
The wall of scaremongering and antagonism helped to confuse rather than clear people’s minds. Sant and Muscat did their very best to derail a project that had been simmering for decades.
A lot of Maltese possibly also do not recall that Sant and his short-lived government had unceremoniously ‘frozen’ Malta’s application to the EU stalling the much needed momentum for over two years. But Sant’s and Muscat’s efforts proved fruitless in the end when a significant majority of Maltese and Gozitans took heed of the PN government that had mounted a massive campaign for a Yes vote.
The PN campaigner at the time was Simon Busuttil, who stood out as a singular figure defending the benefits of EU membership. The referendum’s success catapulted Busuttil into the world of Maltese politics and he is now the PN leader.
Our membership of the EU has brought with it much needed structural reform and a modernised set of legislation that has propelled the islands into the 21st century. Membership has made us view the world around us in a different way and has given us a seat at the table of the world’s leading political and economic blocks.
Since 2003, up to its electoral defeat in 2008, the Labour Party remained adamant in its position on the EU. Muscat was one of the few that directly benefitted from the No campaign when his continuous exposure launched him comfortably into the European Parliament - the very same institution he had reviled such a short time before!
So as not to upset his then political masters, Muscat remained suspecting in his opinions on the EU while reaping the generous benefits coming his way.
This is something that is now being replayed by former prime minister Alfred Sant. Labour’s inconsistency seems to know no end.
Ironically a few days ago an ever pragmatic Muscat said that he will support David Cameron in his bid to keep the UK in the EU fold. It is no secret that our Prime Minister is a fan of his British counterpart and will possibly do his best to be Cameron’s good books.
It will be no mean feat for Cameron to win the day given the formidable line-up of Conservatives who have strong feelings on the British exit from the EU. And yet it is paradoxical to observe our Prime Minister so energetically cheering for the UK Yes vote given his background in our referendum for membership. Rampant inconsistency and all in the name of politics.
Today, Muscat must have realised how wrong he was in 2003.
To my knowledge he has never revisited his actions at the time of the 2003 referendum. Today, he strongly acknowledges the benefits of EU membership.
Indeed on his instalment in government, he found a €1.2 billion package so assiduously put together by the previous PN administration. Muscat refuses to give cognisance to these efforts and keeps harping on PN negativity as a daily mantra.
For all intents, Muscat’s support for Cameron is a confirmation that a ‘Brexit’ will be no good news for Malta both in terms of our relations with Britain and the precarious future of the EU should the No win the vote in the UK.
In all truth Malta has little or possibly no say in the outcome of the June 23 vote. We shall have to remain bystanders as things play out in the coming months. In the meanwhile I appeal to you to pause and reflect on Labour’s many faces.
Caroline Galea is a PN candidate for the general election on the fourth district.