Anti-Islam, immigration ‘patriots’ to contest general election

The self-declared organisation of Maltese patriots will contest the upcoming general election, campaigning on an anti-immigration platform.

Its president Alex Pisani – a Valletta confectionary owner - told a press conference at the Excelsior Hotel that the group will seek to contest all 13 districts.

Secretary general Henry Battistino – owner of a mirror factory in Marsa – said that its electoral policies will revolve around concerns about “forced integration” and an “invasion” of foreigners to Malta. These include perceived threats to national security, soaring rent prices, and poor conditions for Maltese workers.

“We want to safeguard the Maltese people at risk of poverty, Maltese workers, Maltese families and pensioners,” he said. “Christian values and Maltese traditions will be at the heart of this movement’s policies. 

He claimed that the group is already supported by 12,000 people, ostensibly referring to the number of members in its Facebook group.

Sunday newspaper Illum – who revealed the patriots’ electoral intentions last week – had said that people have already expressed their willingness to fund their electoral campaign.

The ‘organisation of Maltese patriots’ was founded in 2014 and has since organised a number of largely poorly attended protests against immigration, Islam and integration.

Although they have repeatedly insisted that they are not racist, arguing that they are not fighting for their skin colour but for their Maltese identity, their protests have been marred by dubious declarations.

Pisani has warned that the Maltese race risks destruction if Muslim women “continue breeding at this rate”.

“The people don’t yet know what integration means, it is like giving people full citizenship rights,” he said during their second protest. “These people will be able to bring their relatives over. At this rate, we expect Malta to become and African or Muslim state within the next 20 years. Islam is slowly taking over Europe, but we have one religion – Catholicism, and we are proud of it.”

He made headlines last year when he warned that fish could be infected by Ebola, after having eaten at the bodies of asylum seekers who had drowned off the Libyan coast.

In January, the ‘patriots’ handed out ham sandwiches during a protest in Msida as a sign of solidarity with students of the St Paul’s Bay primary school who they had heard were forbidden from eating pork at school due to its high population of Muslim students. Education minister Evarist Bartolo was quick to dismiss such rumours as a lie.