Updated | Hardcore ‘nationalists’ take to the streets in Valletta

Around 70 hardcore nationalists today held a demonstration in Valletta despite having no police permit to hold such an event.

The national protest “against illegal immigration” which was planned for this morning had been cancelled after the organisers decided to withdraw the application for a police permit.

Although members of the crowd which congregated outside the Prime Minister’s office, claimed that the event was a “walk” and not a protest, such gatherings require a police permit.

The crowd chanted ‘Viva Malta’ and sang the national anthem while holding Maltese flags and banners with the eight-pointed cross.

On Friday, a leading member of far-right party Imperium Europa, who hosted a Facebook event calling for a national protest, wrote that the “organiser/s withdrew the Police application,” adding that the event was being removed from his page “in respect of the Maltese law.”

Adriano Spiteri, who appears as the organiser of the Facebook event, was a campaign manager for the far-right party Imperium Europa in the 2014 European Parliament elections, which fielded Norman Lowell, Arlette Baldacchino and Antoine Galea for candidates.

Although Spiteri claimed in his Facebook note that Imperium Europa had “nothing to do with this initiative," he warned that any future protests would only be advertised on his page if a police permit is issued.

“In the absence of this, the member will be removed from the group,” he wrote.

The group had planned to start its walk at the Floriana granaries and walk towards the Prime Minister’s office in Valletta.

Malta has seen few arrivals of asylum seekers in 2014, with Italy taking the bulk of all sea rescues through its Mare Nostrum naval operation.

257 asylum seekers were rescued by the Armed Forces of Malta in September.

Spiteri concluded his Facebook comment by scolding Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for failing to keep his word on pushing-back migrant boats.

Blaming the “crisis” on the Nationalist Party,” Spiteri said that Muscat “gave in to EU pressure and 69 Maltese ‘patriots’ who put foreign interests before the national interest. This means there is no difference between the two parties. It seems the people have not yet understood this.”

In July 2013, the government’s plans to push-back 45 migrants to Libya without granting them the right to apply for asylum were thwarted by the European Court of Human Rights.