Just over a month has passed from my acceptance speech as Green Party candidate for MEP, and the already intense campaign trail, zipping all over Malta and Gozo, meeting people from all walks of life, has produced one constant question: what made you do it? What made you take the plunge?

People are frequently surprised by my foray into politics: an arena I was only cursorily involved in during the Iva ghall-Ewropa campaign and some activities with social NGOs. A mother of three, a full-time teacher, a voluntary worker, and occasional actress – you surely already have a great lot on your plate, I’m frequently told. This was also the question I asked myself many times after being proposed to run on the Green Party ticket with an experienced candidate like Arnold Cassola, and I frequently pondered and reflected on the move I was going to make, from an occasional volunteer and campaigner for AD to one of their candidates for member of the European Parliament.

Now that the campaign is underway, even though June still seems so far away, I feel positive about my new mission. Even though I had always viewed politics from a distance, I have realised that most of what we do in our everyday life is political. Our lifestyle choices, our decisions on what and how to consume, our relationship with other people and the environment around us. I also realised that politics should not only be the domain of ambitious seasoned activists close to party circles, but it is also the battleground for common citizens striving towards a better social existence.

Now, I can be sure of my choice to contribute what I can to the political field in Malta, by shifting the important decisions I have to take in my everyday life into a wider arena My decisions as a mother: the schooling and education of my children, their well-being, the environment, the society and the world they will soon inherit. My professional and voluntary work with the under-privileged: giving everyone a fair chance, despite their backgrounds and personal travails, and ensuring that society and politics can provide the necessary tools for overcoming these disadvantages. My role as a citizen and as a woman: not as a member of a minority, a lobby group, or a faceless and powerless individual, but part of a majority and reality that needs to be at the power-table.

I therefore have resolved, through my candidature with Alternattiva Demokratika, to represent real people, people like me, and give common concerns a real voice. I have chosen to contribute to make a difference, to bring the change that real people, tired of politics as usual, frequently do not witness. I have decided to grab the bull by the horns.

My platform is the Green one – a political vision based on equality and sustainability. It is the platform of the European Greens and the Greens-EFA political grouping in the European Parliament. A vote for the Greens in the June 2009 election is essential as it will bring Maltese representatives in the fourth largest political group in the EP. A third Maltese party in the EP will influence 50 extra Green votes for Malta, beyond the Christian Democrat and Socialist members, thus being able to exert greater political pressure in Malta’s interest, and also enabling another alternative voice to be heard. That is also why Arnold Cassola and I will be inviting you to vote for the both of us in the next election: now is the time to elect the first Green MEP from the new member states, and for Malta to gain an important presence in another political grouping.

While auguring for a positive campaign that deals with ideas and vision, and does not resort to base mudslinging and character assasination, I invite you to consider AD once again as 29,000 others, with their first and other preference votes, had done in 2004.

Together with Arnold Cassola, I will strive to put forward concrete proposals towards Malta’s success in the European Union, and I will work to put forward sustainable social and environmental policies aimed at the well-being of our environment, our country’s citizens and our children.

http://yvonneebejerarqueros.wordpress.com

http://www.alternattiva.org.mt