Hunters want to abolish citizens' right to demand abrogative referendum

Hunters’ lobby FKNK has called on the country’s lawmakers to amend a provision granting citizens the right to legally demand an abrogative referendum, arguing that it does not want anyone to go through the “trauma” and “severe hardship” it had to endure.

In a statement published 16 months since the hunting lobby, a self-proclaimed minority backed by over 104,000 people, narrowly won the spring hunting referendum, the Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK) insisted that a 1996 law in the Referenda Act which allows 10% of the electorate to invoke a referendum on whether to delete or retain a law should be repealed so that other “minorities” are respected.

“Another petition is being collected that could lead to another abrogative referendum, this time to abolish the tradition of fireworks ... The FKNK cannot remain silent when it can see the tradition of pyrotechnics attacked indiscriminately by a few individuals,” it said.

The petition ostensibly refers to an online petition calling for a “ban on noise-making petards” – and not all fireworks – which has so far garnered 3,137 signatures.

“The FKNK had warned that any minority can fall victim to a similar abrogative referendum unless the Referenda Act is duly amended in a fair, equitable and adequate manner … The FKNK does not want any Maltese or Gozitan to go through the trauma and suffer the severe hardship it had to endure during the spring hunting referendum,” it said.

The FKNK’s claims contradict reassurances made by a group of Maltese legal experts, including former judge at the European Court of Human Rights Giovanni Bonello, who in the run-up to the spring hunting referendum in January 2015 had allayed fears that the spring hunting referendum will open the door to restrictions on other hobbies.

Contrary to what had been suggested by FKNK in the months preceding the referendum, the group of lawyers had explained that the only reason why spring hunting could be abrogated by a referendum was because it is only allowed by a derogation – which is, in itself, an exception that allows a member state to breach the law.

Consequently, hunting in general, and by extension, other hobbies, such as firework manufacturing, horse riding and vehicle modification, are not at risk and have nothing to fear. For such hobbies to be abolished, a completely different type of referendum – a resolutive referendum which would have to be proposed by parliament and could not be prompted by a petition – would have to be held, legal experts had said.