PN derides news that former Labour PM Alfred Sant wants to be MEP

Former prime minister Alfred Sant has informed the Labour Party's deputy leader for party affairs that he will not standing for elections in 2013.

Sant, 64, said that after consulting with Labour leader Joseph Muscat, he will propose himself for a candidature for the European Parliament elections.

"After consulting with Dr Joseph Muscat, I have decided it is in the best interest of Labour that I do not present my candidature for the next general elections. Instead, my intention is that I proposed myself as a candidate for Labour in the European Parliament elections for 2014," Sant said in a letter to the PL's deputy leader.

Sant's candidature must be approved by a general conference of Labour delegates.

Sant led the Labour government of 1996-1998, one of his first political decisions having been the freezing of Malta's application for EU membership. He became Labour leader in 1992, having won an election against Lino Spiteri, who later became finance minster in the next Labour government.

He led a campaign against EU membership from 1998 onwards, proposing instead to have an association 'partnership' agreement with the EU and calling on Labour voters not to vote in the 2003 referendum on EU membership.

When the 'yes' vote won the EU referendum, Sant provoked some controversy when he announced that 'partnership' had won by including the number of abstentions to the voters who had voted no to EU accession.

The news was welcomed with some expected sceptism from the Nationalist Party, which said the choice of Sant to run for MEP "confirmed that Labour was still a eurosceptic party".

In a statement, the PN said Muscat's decision "to send Sant to the European Parliament" showed Labour to be eurosceptic, having led a campaign against EU membership.

"The director and principal actor against Malta's accession to the EU tried to deny students and workers the opportunities that EU accession has brought. Together Sant and Muscat wanted Malta not to benefit from the funds that have allowed the construction of infrastructural projects. Muscat's decision cannot be taken seriously, because his decisions are just not credible."