Yes camp insists they won't respond 'anti-democratically' to referendum loss

The Yes camp will not respond "anti-democratically" if they lose the soring hunting referendum, Yes camp spokesperson Kathleen Grima said.

She was asked by MaltaToday to clarify what Joe Perici Calascione, the president of the hunting association FKNK, had meant when he had said that he will seek "legal means" to reverse a potential No victory.

"If the majority of the people unfortunately vote No, then we cannot pretend that we've won the referendum," Grima, the FKNK's lawyer, said at a public dialogue session in Mosta. "However, that doesn't mean that we won't be able to keep believing in the principle that the EU had given us the right to derogate from the Birds Directive in spring."

Grima was also asked to respond to revelations that an athlete who has been pushed by the Yes camp for his support for spring hunting was convicted in 2006 of being in possession of an illegally-hunted Nd protected species of owl.

She said that the Yes campaign remains fully against illegalities but dismissed the significance of the finding to the campaign as the athlete in question is not one of the Yea camp's spokespersons. 

A good deal of the public dialogue session was spent criticising the Spring Hunting Out (SHout) campaign,

Grima accused SHout of campaigning against hunters, rather than spring hunting, and of creating a stigma against hunters.

"SHout are portraying hunters as criminals, but we believe that legal hunters shouldn't have to suffer because of the illegal ones. Tolerance should reign and different opinions should be respected."

Yes camp spokesperson Sylvana Zarb Darmanin warned that a 'No' referendum victory will create a "free-for-all situation for illegal hunters".

"The No camp have criticised the amount of public funds spent on law enforcement during the spring hunting season, but are they trying to fool people into believing that such enforcement will end with a 'No' victory?

"Police are present at feasts and football stadiums too. Are those also a waste of public funds?"

Although the two spokespeople and the moderator were all females, their audience was all but completely composed of males.