Last week, the Malta Labour Party deputy leader for parliamentary affairs, Charles Mangion, wrote to this newspaper to say that Malta’s relationship with the European Union should not be treated as if it were a “sacred cow”.
He was replying to a leader in The Malta Independent which analysed what Dr Mangion had said during a meeting the MLP hosted for representatives of the European Socialist Party in the run-up towards the party’s annual general conference.
That leader, called Avoiding mistakes, was meant to open the MLP’s eyes to the fact that it should be careful in what it says about European Union membership and all that comes with it. That issue cost it the 2003 election and, unless the MLP shows that it has accepted the decision taken by the people, it runs the risk of losing the coming election too.
It seems that this advice was not well received by the MLP, not only because Dr Mangion sent in a reply that makes one question whether Labour have really understood that Malta’s EU membership is indeed the best step that the country could have taken, and indeed took.
But, added to this, that same week MLP leader Alfred Sant, returning to politics after his surgery, once again reopened the whole issue with his
declaration that an MLP government would reconsider the whole package the country has obtained with the EU.
It seemed like going back to the years when the MLP was calling for a partnership with the European Union, rather than the membership it eventually obtained. At a time when Malta has already started to reap the fruits of its decision, Dr Sant wants the country to go back to the negotiating table.
Dr Sant seems to have forgotten that the membership issue is over, that the Maltese people have made a choice and that Malta has moved on.
What Dr Sant said was reminiscent of his regular speeches against EU membership in the run-up to the 2003 referendum. It led many to think that, in spite of its public statements and endorsement of the people’s decision for Malta to join the EU, the MLP still holds the idea that a partnership deal is better than membership.
Well, perhaps this is not surprising considering that Dr Sant himself kept saying that the “no” vote had won the referendum, long after the country had joined the European bloc, simply because he kept on counting the people who did not vote or the invalid votes as part of the “no” vote.
What is quite surprising however is that the subject has been brought up again – with the MLP, rather than making it clear that the matter is closed, sticking to a position that had led to its defeat at the last election.
Has the MLP changed or not? Has the MLP really accepted that Malta has decided its fate? Or does it want the country to once again go through the tribulations and uncertainty that characterised the years leading up to the 2003 referendum and election?
And this is what The Malta Independent meant when it said that Labour should avoid making mistakes that could cost it the election.
Statements such as those made by Dr Sant, and the fact that what he said was not clarified by himself or by the party afterwards, do lead to many doubts.
Doubts that Labour, if elected to government, will throw Malta back in time. Doubts that Labour will be seeking to correct what it believes was a wrong decision taken in the past, rather than look forward and work towards a better future.
Doubts that Labour could ultimately decide to suspend Malta’s EU membership, in the same way that it had frozen Malta’s application when it was elected in 1996.