Yes campaign insists they are ‘in favour of tolerance’

The ‘Yes to spring hunting’ campaign insisted a ‘Yes’ vote in the upcoming referendum is “a positive choice in favour of mutual respect and tolerance”.

“On one side, there is the respect for those who practice their recreational activity within the law, and on the other hand the elimination of a right enjoyed as an EU member state,” Yes campaign spokesperson Kathleen Grima told a public dialogue session in Birkirkara.

Grima, the lawyer of hunting organisation FKNK, accused the ‘No to spring hunting’ campaign of lying and scaremongering.

“They claim that spring hunting contributes to higher taxation, but both the application of the derogation and the enforcement during the hunting season are covered by hunting license and other fees paid by the hunters on an annual basis,” she said. “The people are still expecting the ‘No’ campaign to explain how much this referendum will cost the taxpayer.

"The people will be paying money as a result of the extremism of the ‘No’ campaign that cannot come to terms with the fact that spring hunting is permissible by the European Commission.”

The truth, she claimed, is that the people are paying for the “stubbornness” of Alternattiva Demoktatika.

“AD are pulling the strings of the ‘No’ campaign to impose its agenda from outside Parliament,” Grima said. “Unfortunately, the ‘No’ campaign cannot understand the principle that one cannot eliminate a legal and legitimate activity just because one does not like or agree with it.”