One of the consistent arguments I made throughout the European Parliament election campaign is that Arnold Cassola was making the wrong decision to go at it all alone instead of joining forces with ADPD, his actual and previous home-party. Arnold Cassola contested by himself and got around 12,000 votes in total, much higher than ADPD’s leader Sandra Gauci 2,000 votes.
However, Arnold Cassola did not get elected, and neither were any other other alternative and independent candidates. I prevented from critcising Arnold Cassola during the campaign out of respect for him given that he is fighting the good fight, but now I feel I can write more openly about him.
If Arnold Cassola had temporarily set aside his ego for the common good, he might have had a much better chance of getting elected by joining forces with ADPD and pooling his resources with a larger team of supporters. However, he didn’t do that because he is an egotistical individual who can’t work as part of a team unless he is the center of attention. This should be elementary in politics, and Arnold Cassola knows this, having been an MP and member of a coalition government in Italy. Why doesn’t Arnold Cassola apply the same compromising tactics he used in Italy in Malta?
In 2004, in Malta’s first European Parliament elections, Arnold Cassola got more than 20,000 votes. What has changed since then in order to refuse a candidacy with ADPD? Not a lot. People will find all sorts of excuses not to vote for ADPD, but in reality they are wrong. There is nothing perfect in politics, and people in alternative politics (that is the world outside PN and Labour) have to start thinking more in terms of working as part of a large group to acquire political power and execute social change, instead of conducting politics like a popularity contest.
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