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Karl Schembri
Pledging that he would resign from his well-paid seat at the Italian Parliament if he gets elected into the Maltese, Alternattiva’s Arnold Cassola told MaltaToday he wished to contest in the next general election.
It would be a great leap backwards for his pocket, but the former secretary-general of the European Greens now based in Rome said money was never a priority.
“I would have to work a whole year to earn what I get here in a month,” he said about the plunge in the salary for Maltese MPs. “But I would come to Malta if I’m elected, there’s no question about that. Money has never been a priority for me. What I’m after is the privilege, the position to influence politics through my ideas, and it would really be a great honour if I’m elected to the Maltese parliament.”
Asked if he was as optimistic as the AD Chairman, Harry Vassallo, who said earlier this year that he expected to get up to four Green MPs elected in the next election, Cassola said he believed it was the right time for the party to elect its first ever MP.
“Now the people are no longer afraid because the EU issue has been settled,” Cassola said. “Our democracy is safeguarded by Brussels, and so are our foreign policy and the economy, and there is no longer the fear that a vote for AD would mean a vote for the PN or for the MLP. So I think it is the right time for the third party to be elected to Parliament.”
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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