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12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 APRIL 2019 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 APRIL 2019 NEWS Arnold Cassola DEFINITELY the most high-profile of the so called 'independents'. Arnold Cassola was a long-standing politician and twice chairperson of the Mal- tese Green Party Alternattiva Demokratika before resigning this year over his party's refusal to disassociate itself from com- ments from another candidate, Mina Tolu, who argued for a sane debate on abortion rights. Apart from being a published academic of the Maltese lan- guage and literature, Prof. Cas- sola served as secretary-general of the European Greens in the years leading up to 2003, when he garnered over 24,000 votes in the 2004 election – coming in sixth. He was then elected to the Italian parliament, using his ancestral Italian nationality to run on a list of expatriates for the centre-left coalition led by Romano Prodi. Politically, Cassola remains a vocal and level-headed section of the Maltese landscape of ex- tra-parliamentary forces which campaign on the environment and social justice, placing him on the ecological centre-left of the spectrum. Antoine Borg COMPUTING grad- uate Antoine Borg launched his candidate off his own blog – 'Brain Not Ego' – in which he dispenses his own personal solutions to complex problems of Maltese politics and political culture. Fashioning himself as a keen observer of human behaviour, in a blogpost on the outcome of the Egrant inquiry, he de- duced that Joseph Muscat's performance during his press conference had been a sham. "There are too many points which suggest that all isn't as it seems. If someone you know thought the Prime Min- ister was being genuine, you have to ask yourself one simple question. Has this person been brainwashed? That's what ma- nipulation is all about." A resident of Prague, Borg spent the past eight years working in the European space programme Galileo as a techni- cal support officer working on contracts for satellite security technology. He believes in better Euro- pean integration and the sin- gle European currency, and stronger borders but added burden-sharing and European intervention against smuggling gangs in North Africa, as well as sustainable development and ways of tackling income in- equality in the growing service economy. Ideologically, he is likely a liberal and a centrist. Mario Borg ON Mario Borg's Face- book profile, his most recent livestreams have spoken in defence of Julian As- sange, arrested by UK police for his extradition to Sweden, asking why the "mainstream media" is not asking questions about his ar- rest. Dubbing himself a 'Mintoff- jan', one of his Facebook pho- tos has a flag of Israel planted instead of the George Cross on the Maltese flag, while another has the photo of Palestinian ac- tivist Ahed Tamimi. And then, another photo lampooning the European Union's action on illegal immigration, claiming that the "EU's sponsored be- trayal is enforced by our parlia- ment". He rails against Maltese NGOs for supporting the rights of asylum seekers and berates them for ignoring Assange's extradition, paying tribute to Wikileaks and Chelsea Man- ning. At face value, despite his ad- ulation of Labour's patriarch and support for Democratic aspirant Tulsi Gabbard for US president ("she's the only one speaking against war, against torture, against Assange's ar- rest... but never mentions the Saudis and Israelis on 9/11"), Borg's conspiratorial view of the Christchurch massacre as a false flag operation, Israeli interests, climate change, and euroscepticism, especially on migration, places him on an an- ti-liberal and anti-EU position that would find a natural home inside the hard right. He even shared a video by far-right and independent candi- date Stephen Floriana, while the patriots' Henry Battistino is wishing him luck for the campaign. Stephen Florian STEPHEN Florian is a lecturer at the Naxxar Higher Secondary. He was involved in a contro- versy over transphobic state- ments he made against a young activist protesting a demon- stration by the far-right patri- ots' movement. Unlike other members on the hard right, Florian is a better speaker, and better informed orator. His Facebook videos display a more graceful appre- ciation of facts than other can- didates, offering a more sincere analysis albeit clearly on the hard right of politics. Florian is a pro-life, anti- federalist candidate who natu- rally takes an anti-immigration stance. Formerly an activist with the patriots' movement, he has expressed himself against the Gozo tunnel project and the uglification of Maltese village cores. Educated in Moscow's Rus- sian Academy of Theatre Arts, Florian was formerly deputy leader of the Moviment Patri- otti Maltin. Moviment Patrijotti Maltin APART from fielding its candi- dates for the local councils, the far-right MPM will have Simon Borg and Naged Megally, a spe- cialist gynaecologist and Coptic Christian who hails from Egypt, as their candidates. If there is a common trait it's the trib- ute they pay to Dom Mintoff, particularly his emancipatory 'Malta for the Maltese' slogan. Shorn of its colonial context, it is just another MAGA war cry. Fiercely anti-immigration and anti-EU, Megally complains of Malta being "run by Brussels and that drunk- ard Juncker", while Si- mon Borg recently post- ed a video on Facebook saying Malta's electorate is now composed of a sizeable chunk of foreign voters. Imperium Europa NO need of any introduction: ageing Nazi apologist Norman Lowell is the reference point for anti-immigrant and openly racist anger since 2004, a pro- test vote for Labour and Na- tionalist voters who are happy on the hard right of their par- ties. Thinks Malta is a spiritual base for the civilisational re- newal of Europe. Alleanza Bidla THE conservative outfit of Ivan Grech Mintoff has clear align- ments: socially conservative, Eurosceptic and Christian de- mocracy. It is formally aligned with the European Christian Political Movement, an alliance that includes right-wing parties like the Portuguese People's Monarchist party and Poland's Right Wing of the Republic, which, among other things, de- clare full support for the teach- ing of the Catholic Church and oppose abortion, euthanasia, same sex unions and IVF. The ECPM is aligned with the Eu- ropean of Conservatives and Reformists inside the European Parliament. Grech Mintoff has been a vehement critic of the Labour government, at one point asso- ciating himself with an alleged Libyan whistleblower who has accused an employee of the Prime Minister's office, Neville Gafà, of taking bribes on medi- cal visas. He is running for MEP together with University aca- demic Rebecca Dalli Gonzi. Nazzareno Bonnici NOT quite Monster Raving Loony Party, but part of that long line of crackpot can- didates who lighten the mood of any election: Zaren tal-Ajkla stands for little except for being a welcome distraction with his performances of song and disjointed speeches aimed at the establishment. A self- described former Labour voter, he once attracted thousands at a mass meeting in Zabbar in 2013, and garnered just over 1,000 votes (0.48%) in the 2014 European elections. Seat projections, based on a cross-section of national polls, on the composition of the next (9th) European Parliament (751 seats) Outside the mainstream AD PD Apart from third party contenders Alternattiva Demokratika and Partit Demokratiku, who are the independent candidates vying for a seat in Brussels? AB IE/ MPM