[WATCH] Government needs to say if it intends to sign UN migration compact, anti-immigration party says

The Moviment Patrijotti Maltin has come out to criticise the government for not saying whether or not it intends to sign the United Nations Global Compact for Migration.

The Global Compact is an intergovernmentally negotiated agreement which comprehensively covers issues related to international migration. The UN will be holding a conference to adopt the compact on 11 December.

MPM said, however, that - while countries such as the United States, Australia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Greece and Italy had declared that they would not be signing the compact - the Maltese government and the Opposition had “not said a word” about the agreement.

The anti-immigration party said, at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, that it had to no avail asked the government multiple times to make public its intentions on the matter, and that it was “unacceptable, unjust and anti-democratic” that the Maltese people have not been informed about the content of the agreement, “with the repercussions that it could have on our country”.

“MPM condemns the government’s silence before this threat to the Maltese people’s sovereignty, and equally condemns the silence of the Opposition, which apparently has forgotten what nationalism means and what its duty is,” party leader Henry Battistino said.

“We also appeal to Maltese supposedly independent journalists to not forget what their principal duty is - that of informing the people, because if there is no news value in informing citizens that they could be on the verge of losing their country’s sovereignty, then what has news value?”

Battistino added that the government didn’t have an electoral mandate to “throw away” Malta’s sovereignty, and that the MPM was expecting an “immediate reply” about the issue from the government, failing which it would be taking “all legal measures” to ensure the safeguarding of this sovereignty.