Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1524298
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 JULY 2024 What principles dear Alex and Daniel? Editorial ALEX Agius Saliba and Daniel Attard had every right not to vote for Roberta Metsola to become the European Parliament president once again. The two MEPs had no obligation to vote for her simply because she is Maltese if they were so strongly against her beliefs. But just as the two MEPs had every right to act as they did, we have every right to scrutinise and criticise their actions. Agius Saliba and Attard said they abstained from the vote because they wanted to be consistent with their principles as expressed during the election campaign. The principles at stake appear to be Metsola's weak stand on the Gaza massacre being perpetrated by Israel, and her very strong pro- Ukraine stand that advocates providing military support to enable the country fight back against the Russian invasion. Based on these principles, it would be interesting to know whether the two MEPs voted in favour of Ursula von der Leyen's second term as European Commission president. If anything, Von der Ley- en had adopted a stance that was far more aloof from the Palestinian cause than Metsola's. Now, if Agius Saliba and Attard truly want us to believe that Metsola's stand in relation to the Middle East is what really motivated them to ab- stain they can go that one step further and badger the Maltese government to take the brave step of formally recognising the Palestinian State. De- spite making such a pledge earlier this year, Mal- ta was not part of the small grouping of EU mem- ber states that recognised Palestine a couple of months ago. The big irony in the rhetoric adopted by Agius Saliba and Attard is that while they believed they were doing their country and their conscious a fa- vour by abstaining on Metsola 'the warmonger', the Maltese government has since May this year stationed two military personnel in the headquar- ters of the EU's Red Sea maritime mission, Op- eration Aspides, to prevent attacks on merchant ships. We have absolutely no qualms over Malta's participation in Operation Aspides. Indeed, we believe the country should have done more by embedding a military contingent on one of the participating ships from other European coun- tries. It is the right thing to do. But this is where the principles cited by Agius Saliba and Attard get suddenly muddled. Taken at face value, their stand is one that ap- peals to a diminishing Labour hardcore enam- oured to an idea of neutrality that is not only de- funct but dysfunctional. They have every right to stick to this notion but this leader suspects there is much more to their abstention than they have let on in public. It beggars belief that Agius Saliba and Attard chose to abstain because of this disagreement with Metsola but had no qualms appearing alongside Joseph Muscat and coming to his complete de- fence despite the very serious crimes he is being accused of. And we do not cite the Muscat incident casually. The truth is that the Labour Party's narrative over the past six months has been so confused that it has not only confounded voters but even its own MEPs. The PL's narrative was conditioned by its former leader and the all-out attack on Metsola by trying to depict her as a ruthless warmonger and a killer of Palestinian children (descriptions far removed from reality) was simply a way of rebuffing the on- ly person who could upstage Muscat. Agius Saliba and Attard played ball with the nar- rative dictated by Muscat, taking it one step fur- ther and engaging in an act of open defiance to- wards Prime Minister Robert Abela. The Prime Minister had said he will support Metsola's re-election despite his differences with her. Abela based his argument on Labour's long held belief that in the national interest it should support any Maltese candidate proposed for a top job in the EU. While there is merit in this stand, given the smallness of the country and greater dif- ficulty it is to have nationals occupy positions of influence, it may not always be the right thing to do. But when two of Labour's three MEPs decide off their own accord to ditch their own party's long held belief the situation becomes a bit more com- plicated. The truth is that Agius Saliba's and Attard's ab- stention is symptomatic of the lack of cohesion in the Labour Party and the growing friction between different factions. They simply exported their party's internal bat- tles to the hemicycle in Strasbourg. The sullen face of Alex Agius Saliba as fellow MEPs applauded Metsola's spectacular success will forever remain etched in the annals of European Parliament folk- lore. It will not be remembered as a principled stand but the petty action of a Maltese man who could not bring himself to support a fellow Maltese can- didate for a post that 90% of MEPs believe she ful- filled with flying colours. It's a shame. Quote of the Week "This was a plain appeasement mission… Only two days later Putin's jets aimed their missiles at a children's hospital and maternity ward in Kiev; that strike was not a mistake. It was a message. A chilling message to all of us." Ursula von der Leyen when addressing MEPs in Strasbourg on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's so-called 'peace mission' which recently took him to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine. MaltaToday 10 years ago 20 July 2014 19 migrants die in latest boat tragedy 80 miles off Lampedusa UP to 19 persons are thought to have died in the latest tragedy involving migrants, as a boat carrying asylum seekers found itself in difficulties around 80 miles from Lampe- dusa. The government believes that a stampede before or during the transfer of the migrants to a merchant vessel caused their death. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat broke the news while attending the Maratona Ohloq Tbissima in Sta Venera yesterday morning. "In recent hours yet another tragedy oc- curred outside our shores, when six boats carrying migrants were detected. "One of the boats faced some difficulties and a number of dead bodies will be brought in to Malta while an infant who tragically died will be taken to Italy with his parents who are still alive," Muscat said. According to the Prime Minister, the un- confirmed number of deaths is of between 12 and 15. Government sources told MaltaToday that the infant was among the dead, howev- er the total number of victims could not yet be confirmed. The rescued migrants are be- ing transferred to Italy, while the dead bod- ies, apart from the infant's, will be brought to Malta. The authorities were alerted by a mer- chant ship and it is thought that the incident happened while the asylum seekers were be- ing transferred on to another vessel. Although the incident happened inside Malta's search and rescue area, Lampedusa was the closest port of call.