Cassola lambasts Labour Party for 'blatantly' pandering to hunters over spring hunting

Independent candidate Arnold Cassola has taken the Labour Party to task, citing that the party has no concept of “real and genuine” environmental protection and was blatantly pandering to the hunting lobby.

“By removing the moratorium on quail and turtle dove hunting, Labour will be complicit in the continued destruction of the little remaining natural wildlife in our country,” Cassola said in a statement.

On Wednesday, the Ornis Committee voted in favour of lifting the moratorium on turtle dove hunting in spring.

The moratorium was introduced in 2017 following the classification of the turtledove by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as a vulnerable species.

The independent candidate said that the election had shown that the Labour and the Nationalist Party are being held hostage by the threat of votes from the hunting lobby.

“It is well past time that the thousands of Maltese who love our natural environment and wildlife use their vote to protect what they love. Election after election, PL and PN have betrayed the natural environment again and again,” he said.

Cassola said that people who wished to protect the environment should consider voting for independent and third-party candidates.

In reaction, to the news, BirdLife Malta said the Ornis decision went against the legal principles of the EU directive.

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