Carmel Cacopardo, Arnold Cassola to contest MEP elections

The green party’s current leader and his predecessor, as well as LGBTQI activist Mina Tolu will be running for a seat at the European Parliament in next May’s elections

Alternattiva Demokratika announced three candidates for the upcoming MEP elections
Alternattiva Demokratika announced three candidates for the upcoming MEP elections

Alternattiva Demokratika chairperson Carmel Cacopardo will be running for a seat at the European Parliament in next year’s MEP elections, the party said on Saturday.

In addition to Cacopardo, the party also announced the candidature of former leader Arnold Cassola and LGBTQI activist Mina Tolu.

In a statement, AD’s secretary general Ralph Cassar said the three candidates had been approved by the party’s executive.

“We have three experienced candidates, reflecting the principles of AD and of the European Green Party,” Cassar said. “Our principles and polices focus on people and not on the interests of corporations. We are for a social Europe, for policies which protect and improve people’s quality of life.”

Cassar said the party would continue to stand for a healthy environment and an economy which serves people rather than a “neoliberal laissez-faire economy” where strong interests prevail over the common good.

“A Green vote is a strong message in favor of consistency, effective and serious policies and clean politics. It is a vote of principle, not a vote of convenience. It is a vote against the friends of friends mentality, in favour of transparency and accountability. It is not excluded that more candidates join the party's list," Cassar said.

The party said that Tolu, 27, is an LGBTQI activist and communications graduate who has contributed to campaigns for LGBTQI, women, and youth rights for the past eight years in Malta and internationally.

“Mina believes that only by electing green politicians can we ensure a future in which our economy, our quality of life, and our planet will no longer be held hostage by big corporations that put profit before people.”

Cacopardo is an architect by profession and has been party chairman since 2017, with the party pointing out that he is the author of a book entitled ‘Time for Radical Change. The Introduction of Eco-taxation in Malta’.

Cassola was a co-founder of AD back in 1989 and served as secretary general of the European Green Party between 1999 and 2006. He was also a member of the Italian Parliament between 2006 and 2008.

As an academic he recovered in Rome the earliest dictionary of the Maltese language (17th century), in Istanbul the Ottoman manuscripts on the Siege of Malta (1565), in Madrid the epic poem La Maltea (1582) about the Great Siege and in Athens the extensive Melitensia collection belonging to Joannes Gennadius.