FKNK ‘didn’t understand’ Muscat’s last chance warning

Lino Farrugia, chief executive of hunting federation FKNK, admitted on ONE TV that he did not understand what the Prime Minister meant when he warned hunters that they had “one final chance to get it right”.

“Hunting organisations must realise that the situation has changed and they now have one final chance to get it right,” Joseph Muscat said moments after the referendum result was announced, narrowly in favour of retaining the spring hunting season. “When the spring hunting season re-opens, it will not be back to usual for them. Law-abiding hunters are responsible for reporting all cases of law-breaking hunters,” Muscat said.

Farrugia’s public appearances in the Yes to spring hunting campaign were few and far between – it was felt his public speaking would not be an asset to the Yes campaign. However, he has already made two public appearances since the Yes vote. In a press conference on Monday, FKNK president Joe Perici Calascione also said that he could not understand Muscat’s ‘last chance’ warning, but insisted that “this is the moment of truth for hunters, who carry a huge responsibility towards those who voted ‘yes’ to spring hunting.” 

On Monday, a day after their victory, FKNK representatives held a meeting with Muscat where, according to Farrugia, they discussed the FKNK’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards law-breaking hunters.

“I am sure that genuine hunters will be more wary now,” Farrugia said. 

Spring Hunting Out campaigners Saviour Balzan and Mark Sultana have publicly criticised Muscat for encouraging Labour voters to vote for spring hunting. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil had also publicly declared his intention to vote Yes. However, Farrugia pointed out that while Muscat and Busuttil had supported the Yes campaign, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and former judge Giovanni Bonello had supported the No campaign.

“The three English-language newspapers, 14 NGOs including the powerful BirdLife Malta, and a political party – Alternattiva Demokratika – were all against us,” Farrugia said. 

‘Spring hunting would be banned if Muscat hadn’t intervened’ – Balzan

Speaking on ONE TV in a later programme, MediaToday managing editor Saviour Balzan pinned the blame for the Yes victory on Muscat’s support of the spring hunting lobby.

“If Muscat and other Labour MPs hadn’t intervened, then we would have won the referendum,” Balzan said, adding that the Labour Party representatives had called people up to tell them to vote Yes, and that Labour MPs, band clubs, and mayors had all encouraged people to vote Yes.

“It has been sociologically proven that Labourites are more likely to follow their leader’s beliefs than Nationalists are,” Balzan said. “If Muscat says that he believes in something, a large chunk of Labourites will vote for that something. On the other hand, most Nationalists hadn’t even considered that Simon Busuttil was voting Yes before they themselves voted No.”  

He accused Yes camp spokesperson Kathleen Grima, and her campaign, of scaring people into believing that their own hobbies and pastimes would be at risk if the No vote were to win.

“Yes campaigners walked around Marsaxklokk, scaring old fishermen that they wouldn’t be allowed to fish anymore if the No vote were to win,” Balzan said.

He also hit out at Grima’s call to Parliament to discuss a change to Malta’s abrogative referendum laws so as to “safeguard minorities”.

“I respect the defeat, but in all fairness the PN had tried and failed to get Malta into the EU in 1996, but then tried again and succeeded a few years later,” Balzan said. “Now the Yes campaigners want to change the goalposts.”