Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1544987
The following are excerpts from the interview. The full interview can be found on maltatoday.com.mt as well as our Facebook and Spotify pages. PHOTOS: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTA TODAY 7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 MAY 2026 INTERVIEW You have a 37-year career in politics. What lessons have you learned? The lessons you learn are that you need to work with people. If you have ideals and goals that are absolutist, you generally cannot get anywhere, because you need to confront yourself with people who probably have ideas that are even opposite to yours, or close to yours but not exactly the same. I learned this a lot in the European Parliament, and during the seven years I spent as secretary general of the European Green Party in Brussels, before Malta joined the EU. I am still, to this day, the only non-EU citizen elected secretary general of a European party. There I learned that you need to reach agreements, you need to make compromises. There are issues where you have your red lines where you say, 'no, absolutely, no way', because this is an ethical principle for me that cannot be crossed. But there are others where I want 200 and someone else wants 50, so you try to negotiate and reach 75. The art of positive compromise is something important. And it is something sorely missing from Maltese politics, where instead you have confrontational politics, where whoever wins says, now I will do what I decide… You chose the name Momentum, but in this past year there has been little sense of momentum in terms of public support. Looking at the surveys, Momentum re- mains a relatively small party. Do you feel this is a problem? There is a problem in the sense that you feel it is going badly but I can guarantee you that in these past 15 months, Momentum has grown. Members have now passed 100, when we started with 14. During this campaign we have around 40 people helping us. Obviously not everyone is visible you only see the frontliners, those standing for election. But there is great enthusiasm. If you compare now to three years ago, where the third parties were getting around 2% between them, today they are getting almost 6%. Is that not already progress? […] The polls are important; they give an indication. But don't forget that there is a lot of fear. Here in Malta, people don't always tell you the truth and those who tell you they don't know, or that they won't vote, you need to pay attention, because a substantial number of them may well end up voting. Isn't it more likely that a person will choose not to vote at all rath- er than vote for a small party like Momentum? Up to now, there haven't been enough people voting to elect us on a national basis. But two years ago, there were all those people who voted Arnold Cassola third in Malta; first Metsola, second Agius Saliba, third Arnold Cassola and not Peter Agius, not David Agius, not Daniel Attard, not Thomas Bajada. All those in the European parliament today came after Arnold Cassola. I tell you that since that time, the momentum has grown, and I think more people are convincing themselves. But yes, you are right that there are still people who say they are fed up, they've had enough of everyone. We are there to show them that we are not in this for self-interest. We work to make Malta a better place. A recent case, just this week, was us uncovering how they want to steal the seafront of Sliema. Behind it are Rosianne Cutajar, her father-in-law, and Konrad Mizzi's partner. Had there been no one like us, no one would have noticed, and with the election going on, everything would have been done quietly. We are there for a positive Malta, a beautiful Malta, and to give a future to young Maltese people who want to leave. All of Momentum's candidates are men. The fact that you don't have even one woman, don't you think this is a failure on your part? It is a partial failure, because we don't have a female candidate. But I would rather have no female candidate than have one like Rosianne Cutajar, for example, who sold herself to Yorgen Fenech and went to Strasbourg to vote on a resolution to remove the mention of Malta from the motion on 17 Black. But apart from that, it would have been much better to have a woman. However, you are forgetting that 40% of our executive are women. You can see it even now in the campaign—our press releases come out from our spokespersons, who are women. And I think it is an insult not to respect the will of a person, including a woman, who tells you: "I want to be on the committee, I want to contribute to policy, I want to be there to speak on certain issues. But I want my work-life balance, and I don't want to stand for election." What am I supposed to do, grab them by the arm and say, "You're running?" And then there are the other reasons. Many people men and women say no because they are afraid. They work in business and fear they won't get government tenders. Their children work in a ministry and they fear discrimination. That is what the government does. It rings people at home and says, do you want a job starting tomorrow? You get plenty of takers that way. But we don't want people for the wrong reasons. We want people of principle men and women who believe in real, universal values. Momentum has said that on is- sues of conscience, such as abor- tion, your MPs will be given a free vote. If you, Arnold Cassola, are elected to parliament and a vote proposing the decriminalisation of abortion is put before you how would you vote? Cassola the deputy would vote against the legalisation of abortion, but would work for there to be decriminalisation, meaning that a woman can never be sent to prison. Malta never makes this distinction, between legalisation and decriminalisation. But if Mark Camilleri Gambin is elected, he will vote in favour of the legalisation of abortion, because in our conscience we see it differently… The party places great emphasis on institutional reform but less on everyday issues such as the tax system and social benefits that affect people directly. Don't you think people want to hear more about what you have to say on those issues? I think this is, once again, a mistaken perception as you can see from our electoral manifesto. We are making many tax proposals, but we are doing so responsibly. We are not irresponsible like Labour and the PN, who, if they truly implemented everything they promise, would bankrupt the country and bring us back to where Greece was 15 years ago. Everywhere we propose something, we try to compensate with something else. For example, we are losing a lot of Maltese talent. Many have already left, and many young people who are about to graduate are ready to leave. So, we are proposing a flat tax rate of 15% for 10 years for those who have been abroad for five or more years and want to come back. For students who are about to graduate at level seven or eight, we propose a flat 15% rate rather than starting at 25% or 35%, to give you an incentive to stay in Malta. We are also proposing a tax on property speculation, meaning that if you have 20 properties and 17 are vacant, only the last two are subject to the tax. And we are giving citizens immediate online access to the real assessed value of any property, because right now someone wanting to buy their first home is being told it costs €400,000 when it is actually worth €290,000. You have contested every general election since 1992, every Euro- pean election, and local council elections. Is this your last gener- al election? I have said it so many times: 'Maybe the time has come... But then you see so many ugly things, and there are those telling you to keep your mouth shut. Because the Nationalists don't speak, in fact, they agree with Labour to hand over the Pembroke land to developers. People have no defence. And Momentum is there precisely to defend the citizen in Zurrieq, in Pembroke, in Swatar. Who is speaking for them? Labour? No way. The PN? No way. So, I cannot say it is my last. As long as I have my health and I will be honest with you, any day now you could say I already have four toes in the grave. But I still have six toes outside of it. As long as those six keep wriggling, and as long as, because we are a democratic party, elections continue to be held, and as long as there is someone who wants to take over, and there is consensus, why not? That does not depend only on me.