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 9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 MAY 2026 INTERVIEW We're seeing more and more people refusing to vote for major parties, yet this isn't benefitting the small parties. Why do you think there's this disgruntlement with the polit- ical class that isn't translating into more votes for smaller parties? The problem with the two parties is that they're becoming copies of each other. You can see this in the election campaign, where one party promises something and the other party promises the same thing with chips on the side. People aren't seeing policies. They're seeing offerings; not new ideas or a new economic model. You can't blame someone for not seeing much of a difference in principles, so there's no enthusiasm. We've kept our principals, and I don't agree with you on this because we're seeing movements in the polls… Do you think this is enough? We haven't seen MPs elected from smaller parties. Do you think there's an issue where these parties aren't seen as being able to handle power? People are thinking as though we're going to be elected to government. What we want is to elect someone in parliament to be a voice for the people. If we're elected, we will speak… Before the election, the ADPD and Momentum announced that you will be collaborating during this campaign, yet both of you are fielding candidates in each district, so there's no strategy on how not to hinder each other. What exactly is this collaboration? There is a strategy because we know that we're not going to elect a lot of people if we elect any at all. However, we know which candidates are stronger and we've agreed that these candidates wouldn't compete against each other. We're realistic. We know that if we elect one person, we'll be making history. Whether I'm elected or whether Arnold Cassola is elected, I'll be happy if one of us is elected. You are the only party that is in favour of decriminalising abortion. We know this is un- popular and is still an emo- tional debate. Do you feel as if you're fighting a losing battle in this regard? It's emotional because of the lack of education on this subject. For years we've been taught about this subject from a religious point of view rather than a scientific one. This has changed, and I've seen this in schools. Abortion is part of the PSD syllabus and it is taught from a scientific standpoint. Let's not forget that there are 1,000 abortions in Malta every year. These are women who've gone through the trauma of buying and taking pills like criminals, lying at the hospital if they experience complications. These are the women we are representing. The young women who are afraid that they cannot have a choice if they are raped… As a party you have a certain brand that is different from major parties. Press conferenc- es are simple and not flashy. Do you think this style is effective in convincing people that you are a serious party? I'm tempted to take that as a compliment because I have my own idea on it. When I see what other parties are doing by offering freebies, then we come along and say that we're going to tackle the root of the problem, maybe that's why we appear strange or unusual. We do policies as proper politicians should be doing. Maybe we should use different methods. We're using more social media to target young voters. The sacred cow is this group of young people who don't want to vote so we have to see how to attract them. We do this by speaking their language. We need to promote ourselves differently to different people… Is this group of young voters central to ADPD's strategy? They are very important. Yesterday we were present in the youth's parliament and they were speaking about what they want. My colleagues and I looked at each other and said "these are our policies. They want us." So, we need to make our policies sexier. When you hear interviews with young people on politics, they want the same things we want. It is our duty to reach out to the youths and attract them to us… They have a good head on their shoulders, and this comes out when you speak to them… What are your targets for this election? I dream, and maybe this is a big dream, to have a seat in parliament. That's the target. The second target is a bigger number of votes than the previous election. There's this perception that ADPD is a one-issue party focused on the environment. How does this translate in your policies and proposals? The environment is very important for us, but we have other policies in each sector in Malta. We want clean energy. On transport, we aren't obsessed with private cars and we won't work to have infrastructure that is centred around cars. We want to work for cyclists and pedestrians and other alternatives because people are almost forced to use cars. The bus service isn't efficient and we have to invest in it. When I hear these proposals about monorails and all these white elephants I laugh because I know this will not happen. We have a service that needs fixing now because we want our solutions now… We need rapid bus transits and bus stations in each locality… People want to arrive at work or school on time. So, if you introduce disincentives on car use and improve public transport, you can reduce traffic.