[WATCH] Moviment Patrijotti Maltin to contest local council elections

Moviment Patrijotti Maltin (MPM) will be contesting next year’s local council elections party leader Henry Battistino revealed on Friday.

“We will be contesting in localities that have been invaded, like Hamrun, Marsa and St Paul’s Bay,” Battistino said at the end of a poorly-attended solidarity march held in Hamrun this morning.

The party also used the occasion to unveil a new truck they would be using to get their campaign mobile. MPM said the truck was bought through donations and was billed as the “truck of Malta’s new independence”.

The MPM leader did not exclude putting forward candidates for the European Parliament election and said that internal talks are underway.

Local elections will be held across all towns in Malta and Gozo in May next year, on the same day that people vote to choose their representatives in the European Parliament.

According to the MPM head, the solidarity march was a gesture of understanding with locals who have been hit the hardest by the lack of an immigration policy.

“Politicians have become Brussels’ puppets, acting on their selfish will and forgetting the residents hit hardest by the horrible situation,” Battistino told the small crowd gathered in a Hamrun square, in the presence of migrants who were going about their daily chores.

The MPM leader said that as true Maltese patriots, the party will continue to fight “invasion”, blaming the lack of ideology of the two big parties for the current migrant situation. 

Battistino said that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, must stop building an economy on cheap labour, insisting that the country must not cater for a “million residents” when it can only support half that number. 

The party leader also hit out at Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia, after he was quoted saying that Malta could become a centre of rescue for migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean. 

Battistino said the EU treaty on migration had to be re-arranged since it did not uphold the interest of small countries like Malta. 

Asked how the party planned to improve on last year’s dismal general election result, Battistino blamed the media for lack of exposure.

“The improvement is in your (the media’s) hand, you picture us as being a far-right party and try to ridicule us. When the party starts to gain more exposure, people will understand our message,” he said.

The MPM leader said his party envisaged a country built on values, Maltese workers and Christianity.