In response to your sad taunts and accusations of political opportunism in “Dear Harry” (TMID 14 March), I will repeat the challenge I have made to your colleague George Pullicino to appear in a televised one-to-one including the broadcast in full of the three minute speech I made in Marsascala of which your media network broadcast only the last 30 seconds. I have promised George Pullicino to publish a digital version of it on the AD website the minute it is available. He said that I would have a copy the next day but it never turned up. You too have claimed to have a copy of it. I challenge you to let me have a copy, full and unabridged.

I made that impassioned speech myself and recall it well. It was a denunciation of the abuse of the planning process whereby consultation has become meaningless. I recalled the days when environmental activists were obliged to make their objections by protests in the streets. I went on to express my gratitude for the setting up of the Planning Authority which was the result of years of pressure made by NGOs in the 1980s and well exploited by the pre-1987 PN.

I insisted that if the planning process becomes a sham as in the case of the Mepa site selection process in which five sites were named, four of which could not physically accommodate the proposed development, objectors will no longer be satisfied to win some and lose some in debate but be driven back to street protest. It was not a threat but a warning, a plea for reason and for a return to authentic consultation. At no point then or since have I said that I am somehow against the recycling of waste. You and your party’s media constantly spin otherwise. It harms you more than it harms me.

It is the same in Qui-si-Sana. Residents there know full well that I am in favour of the pedestrianisation of the shopping district. The anonymous distribution of a letter I wrote to The Times in 2000 was no news to them. The issue is consultation of residents and the best that has been offered to them was that consultation took place in 1999 – for a completely different car park project.

Qui-si-Sana residents have taken the trouble to view the plans and learn of the multitude of entertainment outlets planned for their garden. All others were fooled, even resented the residents’ objections. It was a very cunning trick but not very respectful of your own support which is already extremely angry with you for a host of other reasons. How many times do you expect to be able to fool them in this way at election time? You already seem to be fooling fewer and fewer every time.

You will be happy to know that the Greens are celebrating. For the first time in our history we have elected our candidate in Sliema on the first count.

Michael Briguglio was the third candidate elected with 10.3 per cent of the vote. In Sliema the Greens were the only party to enjoy an increase in votes over the previous election. You were crowing over the fact that we notched upwards by just 30 votes over 2003. With 41 per cent of the electorate voting by staying at home, any gain is significant, very significant. It is amazing that you find the time to crow over our small gains when your losses compared to 2003 in Sliema alone amount to 2,214 votes. We never crow over the fallen but I do invite you to ponder the facts in authentic consultation with voters’ views.

We are overjoyed by our victory in Sannat. This Labour stronghold standing behind a 16.6 per cent threshold was taken by an energetic campaign by our John Mizzi who sets a pattern for Green gains in Gozo. What was considered to be impossible is now not only very possible but has become fact. Every other locality in Gozo can now hope to have a Green councillor.

Wherever we can match our adversaries on the ground we can definitely achieve representation. In Sliema our success is more significant since our one candidate could not canvass the locality as effectively as the 14 candidates fielded by the PN to sweep every possible nook and cranny of a nine-seat constituency.

Unlike our adversaries we are not afraid to look at our losses in the face. Lija, Birkirkara and Zabbar did not get the media attention which Sannat and Sliema achieved. In Lija and Birkirkara we lost our place on the council counting it as a grievous loss. Not being able to build on the work done by James Camilleri in Lija and Mario Mallia in Birkirkara was a distraction, and Edward Fenech and David Darmanin, who took their places in the lists, were at a disadvantage.

Zabbar suffered because it was always a forlorn hope and Ian Meli had the hardest task of all, without comparison to those candidates from other parties who are assured of a very significant part of the vote to their party whatever the ultimate outcome.

Birkirkara was especially tantalising with David Darmanin hanging on to the 16th count and missing election by a handful of votes. Success would have meant that the Greens would have an even number of PN and MLP representatives either side of them on the council and could have given a splendid example of the politics we would like to see. Yes, our regret is immense. It will make us stretch ourselves even further in the next round of campaigns. This time it is a particular satisfaction to have brought both our adversaries under the 50 per cent mark.

Before you are next tempted to compare yourself to the Greens or worse to deride us for our victories at a time when you should be searching to explain your own losses, I would invite you to consider the uneven playing field in which our contest takes place. I would be ashamed to be a Nationalist today and not only because of the recent losses. In broadcasting, you are in effect to the Greens today what Labour was to you in the 1980s. Should we broadcast from Sicily to shame you? And you find the time to attack us? Remarkable.

Before you are next tempted to accuse me of political opportunism and power seeking I suggest that you recall that a seat in parliament was offered to me by the leader of your party without the need to contest an election as recently as 2003. I refused. The country knows it.

Our standing in the country is superb, it is your envy and that is why you try so hard to erode it.

I too wish you well.

Dr Vassallo is Chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika

– The Green Party

www.alternattiva.org.mt

www.adgozo.com