Greens balk over unclear policies in Farrugia party

Alternattiva Demokratika will not sway from its political path as a member of the European green family, after members of the Green Party met with independent MP Marlene Farrugia, who is planning her own centre-left formation.

Sources told MaltaToday that Farrugia, a former Labour MP, is the only face in the new political force and that members of its core group have never been involved in politics.

AD deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo has revealed that his party has been involved in talks with Farrugia, supporting the creation of another third party that can challenge the Maltese duopoly.

“The structure of this formation is still unclear but it would being together AD with volunteers who are gathering around Farrugia,” Cacopardo wrote.

Former AD chairperson Michael Briguglio, a local councillor, tweeted that any changes in AD’s structure should be decided upon democratically. And on Facebook, he warned that without an ideological orientation or internal democracy, Farrugia’s party would go the way of Italy’s Five Star Movement, led by comedian Beppe Grillo.

But a party source has told MaltaToday that AD is looking for “continuity”.

“AD has its own policies and nobody is thinking about resetting the clock. A party has to be based on ideology and Farrugia’s formation so far is a pot-pourri of opinions that is really only anchored by an ‘anti-corruption’ agenda.”

“AD is staying within the European Green Parties and there is no way that the party is going to be absorbed by any formation,” the source added.

AD has traditionally been a pro-Europe party, with a strong environmental agenda and one of the earliest proponents of civil liberties, such as same-sex unions as well as divorce legislation.

Farrugia has described her new formation as a “loose coalition of individuals wanting to bring about change” that is seeking to participate in the next general election. “Various individuals, from academics to doctors, university students to people active in the grassroots of the two big parties, have come forward and we are working hard to make this a reality,” Farrugia recently told The Times.

TV presenter Salvu Mallia has already put forward his name as a candidate in the next election.

Farrugia became an independent MP after breaking ranks with the Labour Party last year in the wake of disagreement over the government’s poor record on good governance and the environment.

In 1989, the then Labour Party whip, Wenzu Mintoff was kicked out of the party after standing up to corruption inside the party, together with then party president Toni Abela. The two men co-founded Alternattiva Demokratika and until 1992 Mintoff held his seat as an independent MP for AD.

Since then, various third parties have come on the scene, but failed to improve their vote beyond AD’s 1.8% garnered in 2013: they included right-wingers Azzjoni Nazzjonali, the far-right Imperium Europa, and more recently the eurosceptic Alleanza Bidla.