Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1091272
17 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 MARCH 2019 INTERVIEW situation, and do nothing about it; or do something about it, and try to prove my critics wrong. I took the second option. An- other thing I remember about that first election was that, at the time, my son Jacques was about five months old. A male colleague of mine had a baby of just two months. I remem- ber us standing side by side, at a campaign event, and people would ask me: 'But your chil- dren: how are you going to take care of them, now that you're in politics?' They asked that to me, not to the man standing next to me who had an even younger child. But then… [shrugs] I am also aware that that is the cul- ture. I'm not happy about it; but again, it's a choice. Either I'm going to say, 'Can't be helped, we have a chauvinist culture'… or I'm going to try and do some- thing about it. This is, in fact, the driving force behind your LEAD campaign. Am I right in saying that it is aimed at increasing female participation in politics? The idea behind LEAD is pre- cisely that I agree with what you said earlier about Maltese poli- tics being 'dominated by men'. Politics in general – irrespective of Labour or Nationalist Parties – is male-dominated. But this is not because there are no ca- pable women. There are plenty of capable women. But perhaps they haven't been given enough opportunities to get involved… Or perhaps they don't want to, precisely because of all the stress and criticism they will be going in for… I wouldn't say so. Does a man hold back just because he's crit- icised? It depends of his char- acter, no? The only difference is whether women are exposed to more criticism just because they are women. I think they are, but it's no reason to hold back. And besides, the moment you prove yourself… that per- ception changes. Plus, you also reach a stage when you start taking such criticism in your stride. But I do believe that the more female role models we have, the more we will achieve gender balance in representa- tion. To me, it is not a matter of simply getting more women into Parliament, and by how many. To me, it is that Maltese society is made up of men and women. Why shouldn't Parlia- ment be composed of the same balance? It is supposed to rep- resent Maltese society, after all… But the composition is determined by a popular vote. Not that this reflects my own opinion, but… if the electorate voted for those candidates, and most of them are men… isn't their vote binding? Can we go messing around with the election result, to ensure that more women get elected? I can't agree with that. If the people are given an adequate choice to choose from, the people will choose accordingly. At the last European election, for instance, 25% per-cent of the candidates were women… compared to around 11% in the 2017 general elections. If the people are not being given a choice… how are women go- ing to get elected? And if a party fields women candidates only on the eve of an election, and just to make up the numbers… and these women haven't been coached or trained, they don't know the ins and outs of poli- tics, and nobody knows who they even are, still less what they stand for… how are people go- ing to vote for them? That is the basic idea behind LEAD. I be- lieve that, if we are to give equal opportunities to women to en- ter politics, we will not only get more female candidates, but also more female MPS. Because given a choice, the people will vote for women more. I am con- vinced that the end result would be much better. At the same time, however, that is not the system currently being proposed. Government is toying with a quota system, which targets the election result… not the number of female candidates… Originally, I didn't agree with quotas. I saw it as a sort of to- kenism. Why should a woman be elected just because of a quota mechanism? And people would also remind me that I got there on my own steam. And… yes, granted, I got there on my own steam. But I started out in politics, with Labour's Forum Zghazagh Laburisti, when I was only 15/6. Politics has been part of my life all this time. And I had expo-sure through televi- sion. But I can't expect a woman coming out for politics today, with no prior experience and no public exposure, to just get elected, like that. And gener- ally speaking, the attitude al- ways used to be: 'Oh look, the campaign's about to begin, we don't have enough women can- didates. Let's run around and try and find some.' That's not the way to do things. But back to quotas: the issue, as I see it, is that… we are in 2019, and when you look at the paltry number of women in parliament – even though I feel that the quality of female MPs, across the board, is very high – I feel we need some- thing to shock the system. Not a permanent measure: but some- thing that is introduced to shock the system, only for a short while, to ensure that women do get role-models. Because this, I think, is what will make the dif- ference. I have seen it with my own eyes: even the fact that last President was a woman. I have heard young girls say that they had a role model to look up to. And at the end of the day, it will not just benefit Maltese women, but Maltese society as a whole. On the subject of role models: there is a lot of speculation concerning the post-Joseph Muscat scenario. Do you intend to contest for the position of party leader when (or if) he steps down? In first place: I don't want to entertain, in my discussions, any 'post-Joseph Muscat sce- nario'… because I believe he should stay. I've made this clear a number of times. The only election I am campaigning for, and working very hard at, is the European election. Whatever happens after that, my first pri- ority is for the Labour Party to remain united. I have been ac- tive in the Labour Party for a long time now. I went through a phase when the Labour Party wasn't united; I know what the consequences were. I also lived through the time when Joseph Muscat managed to unite the Labour Party. And as long as a party like the PL re- mains united… it will be good for the party, but also good for the country. So whatever hap- pens, I want to carry on work- ing within a party that is not lost in internal divisions… but can keep taking Malta forward, and remain united. Irrespective of any future role I play in it… this is my number one priority. next level It's a choice. Either I'm going to say, 'Can't be helped, we have a chauvinist culture'… or I'm going to try and do something about it PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES BIANCHI