PM’s aide and Labour MEP candidate accuses Nationalists of sedition

The former editor of General Workers Union daily l-Orizzont, Josef Caruana, has declared his motivation to run for Labour MEP was down to the “shameless sedition” of Nationalist MEPs.

In an interview to the online website Maltawinds, Caruana - who todays works inside the Office of the Prime Minister handling parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests - accused Nationalist MPs of “vile hypocrisy and shameless sedition” and of carrying out an “immoral offensive at international level with no facts to sustain it” against the Labour government.

“Such base sedition had to be stopped. Quislings do not deserve to represent our country,” Caruana said.

“Their aim was to take control of Malta by other means as they do not stand a chance to do so in an election. Democracy suits them only when they win elections; when they lose, they cry foul and resort to their favourite weapon of slander reinforced by perjury.”

“We are duty bound to start cleaning the European stables and clear Malta from the bad reputation the Nationalists tried their best and their worst to blacken.”

Caruana accused the Nationalist MEPs of employing “a battering ram against their own country” by asking fellow European People’s Party MEPs to “assist them in destabilising the country with conspiracies built on forged documents such as Egrant was… I hope that those who have dishonoured their country will be thrashed at the polls by a shocked electorate.”

Hailing from a media stable that had historically opposed Malta’s EU membership, Caruana can be expected to be a critic of the EU establishment and supporter of granting member states greater sovereignty on policy.

“Since Brexit, the need to examine its conscience and to revisit its purpose to exist is much needed,” Caruana said, who named the economy and migration as key reasons for the right-wing onslaught in Europe.

“The common man feels abandoned and adrift. The Europeans’ concerns are economic stagnation which doesn’t create jobs at the rate to secure their future wellbeing and moreover immigration is seen as threatening the very existence of their way of life,” Caruana said.

He blamed the 2008 financial crash for the state of Eurozone economies being still stuck in low growth rates and mass unemployment, and accused the European Commission of lacking the will to “solve the immigration challenge”.

“Jean Claude Juncker was forced to declare in his last State of the Union message that Europe will be enlisting more than 10,000 border guards and that it cannot continue with the policy of trying to find an impromptu solution for every migrant vessel that enters South European harbours. The great divide between member states from West or North, to East and South of the EU is compounding the immigration challenge. Clearly a solution lies in understanding the real and genuine concerns and to show a true spirit of solidarity. Up till now there is only egoism.”