PN in agreement with government: No place for extremists in Malta

The Nationalist Party said this morning that it supported the government’s decision not to allow the anti-migrant vessel C-Star to berth in Malta since the “its only aim is to deliver extremist messages”.

“Our values of tolerance and solidarity must always prevail against the extremism and racism being promoted by C-Star,” said the party in a statement.

The ship, which has been chartered by the identitarian group Defend Europe, and which has been labelled by the European Parliament as a “ship of hate”, has been outside Maltese territorial waters since last week.

A government spokesman had said that the ship’s crew had requested information regarding Maltese procedures should the boat require services in Malta, but was refused entry by local authorities.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that the government had taken a conscious decision not to allow the country to be used by “right-wing extremists”, insisting that the government had made it clear, through its policies, that while it would not allow Malta to act as “sieve”, it also understood migrants’ plight and the need to offer humanitarian aid.

The PN said that while it agreed with the government’s decision, it also expected Muscat to be “consistent” and not take decisions out of convenience.

“While today he is taking good decisions, a few weeks ago the same Prime Minister took a number of other decisions that lacked solidarity,” read the statement, without specifying which cases it was referring to.

On Saturday, Defend Malta started a petition which has to date been signed by was signed by roughly 3,000 individuals, voicing their opposition to the government’s decision. Far-right party Moviment Patrijotti Maltin, through its Facebook Page, also appealed to its supporters to donate supplies which were taken to the vessel on private vessels. 

Earlier this month, Maltese authorities were involved in a stand-off with their Italian counterparts over the Golfo Azzurro -a rescue vessel carrying three individuals saved in Libyan waters. The vessel was stranded in international waters for close to three days after Malta insisted that the migrants be taken to the port closes to the location the migrants were saved, while Italian authorities cited non-compliance with newly-published rescue operation regulations for not allowing the vessel to enter. It was eventually allowed into Sicily.