Despite the fact that I find young politicians toying with serious matters they know little about as insufferable, I need to remind new readers, that the result of this infantile tit-for-tat on defence is the direct result of the Prime Minister’s total disregard of a bicameral consensus on defence that existed for decades. It’s Prime Minister Robert Abela who broke this consensus and some of the Nationalist Party MPs are now falling to the Premier’s provocations.
The Prime Minister began breaking this consensus by using Ukraine and defence issues as part of his partisan propaganda in the European Parliament election campaign. The downward spiral into partisan rhetoric on defence has now lead to Prime Minister Abela promoting a foreign-policy in line with the European far-right, prompting Labour MPs to genuinely ask why doesn’t Labour adopt Hungary’s positions at the EU Council.
Darren Carabott’s stunts would have been unthinkable two years ago. The Nationalist Party didn’t even contest the government’s participation in NATO and European training missions and it was even informed of these initiatives before they were announced in public, whilst both Labour and PN remained loyal to their decades old bicameral consensus on defence. All of a sudden, every defence initiative has become a partisan issue, and it’s the Prime Minister to blame for this situation.
The Prime Minister could have done the minimum he could do, as the leader of the nation, to take the initiative and bring the Opposition onboard of Malta’s position on defence: this is something important for our national security due to the size of the population and the country. It is challenging to have a cohesive and strong defence policy in Malta if both the major parties are using the issue for partisan ends.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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