News • 11 May 2003

Sant sticks to his guns

Anybody hoping for even the slightest hint at change from Dr Alfred Sant must have remained disappointed with his radio interview on Radio Malta yesterday.

Interviewed by Ivan Camilleri, listeners heard a calm and controlled man who could not get himself to elaborate about his party’s mistakes and spoke without emotion about Labour’s electoral loss.

Dr Sant claimed Labour won the referendum gaining 52 percent of the vote; and only lost the elections because of the money pumped into the pro-EU campaign and the bias of what he called "the independent media."

Sant admitted the elections were lost and won over the EU issue and stuck to his guns arguing Labour’s option would have been preferable. "A decision has been taken – the decision has to be respected, but the minority must be respected too," Sant reminded.

Dr Alfred Sant insisted the Labour Party will win the elections next time round, but these words must have sounded hollow to those who had the bitter experience of supporting him enthusiastically to two consecutive election defeats.

"The Labour Party is democratic party, and the role of the leader is to give expression to the desires of those in the party," Sant continued. "There is no doubt that the people chose a message backed by Lm3 to Lm4 million, and we could not win in those circumstances," he argued.

Sant continued to insist that Labour’s vision won 52 percent at the referendum, but admitted that many Labour supporters chose EU membership over partnership.

While accepting that Labour could have made tactical mistakes in the election and referendum run-in, Sant would not elaborate on what form or shape these could have taken and added there were also good decisions taken.

Camilleri said many people saw Alfred Sant’s reaction following the referendum as hysterical and that people were clear in their opinion that Labour had lost, but Alfred Sant stuck to his guns and said the referendum result was at the most inconclusive and a loss for the government.

Sant said it was the right wing and Nationalist manipulation and the media that Camilleri associated with that created a situation where people were afraid following the referendum result and not him or his party. He said he did nothing different from the PN that also mobilised its forces under different guises.

"When one sees what was against the MLP one must conclude that in the referendum Labour achieved a miracle while at election time the party remained compact and achieved an admirable result."

Sant showed himself to be a man of cold emotions and his reaction to the election result was that of a man who almost expected the result and accepted it immediately. That was, of course, the responsible thing to do, but while most Labour candidates were shell shocked, Sant said he took the defeat quite matter of factly and on hearing Labour had lost on the phone merely said: "Ok, I am going to be at the Labour Party headquarters to analyse the situation."

Sant repeated that he had accepted responsibility for the election loss and said he first wanted to announce his decision not to contest the leadership the same day of the election result, but was persuaded not to do so, so quickly.

Asked about his decision to re-contest in the leadership contest Sant said he expected phone calls from people immediately after his decision not to contest but these did not come on the first day. Soon his avid supporters phoned expressing solidarity and he said that these were appreciated, but expected. Then there were other that expressed their confidence in him, and then over the days there were people who were employed by the party including some that he had clashed with over the years that asked him to reconsider.

"I gave most importance to those people in this category and decided to consider what these people were saying and a week and a half later met this group and told them that I was not reconsidering contesting, but was considering what was being said to me."

On May 1 Alfred Sant then announced he would contest the elections after all.

He said that eulogies made about him on Manuel Cuschieri’s programme did not affect his decision to re-contest as he did not listen to the programme.

Sant said it was the time to keep the Labour party solid and strong, that it was not the time for protests from the streets, although there would be reasons for these protests, but echoing Evarist Bartolo said the MLP must be much closer to the workers and their families.

Sant was asked whether it was the case that Labour’s media preached only to its faithful and was not reaching the floating voter and the moderates. He replied that the PN media was the same, but that the PN had, over and above its media, The Times and The Malta Independent, and PBS on its side.

Sant said the independent media was baised against the MLP. He said that it was not possible for the MLP to have the independent media on its side, and said it was the same in other countries.

Commenting on George Abela and his previously rumoured intentions to contest the Labour Party’s leadership Sant said he preferred not to comment on speculation.

Asked whether there was any truth that Sant would make labour less electable and whether there was a need to have a new face, Sant said each contestant had their own positive and negative points. He said he was sure that he had a chance to win the next national elections, and believed he was the best person to lead the party at this point.