Written By The Third Eye In collaboration with A Bird’s Eye View
Malta University Debating Union (MUDU) , which is an initiative between KSU and University of Malta, held its General Election debate on March 10th where five political party leaders were asked to discuss their proposals.
However, what was thought to be a civil debate between political parties turned into a negative experience for some students. Some students who managed to fill out the online form before the registration form crashed did not even receive a confirmation email, meaning they could not attend. This did not only happen to one student who was unfortunate in filling out their form, but to several others, who, even though had the required vaccine certificate and filled the form in time, did not receive the email confirming their attendance.
Moreover, photographs and videographers were asked to leave the debate a few minutes after the debate had started whilst there were ample seats available for them to sit in.
Furthermore, There were several reports of students not managing to reserve a place due to allocation of seats to several party members and youths party representatives.
Spectators of the event could easily make out the difference in the parties present:
ABBA
Confronted both the Nationalist and Labour party over their environmental and development proposals. Furthermore, ABBA answered questions but frequently confronted Robert Abela and Bernard Grech, especially on the topic of abortion, to which ABBA repeated their stance against the morning after pill and abortion. This created quite a reaction from the students present in Sir Temi Zammit Hall.
Ivan Grech Mintoff continued his argument by stating that while he and his party are not against homosexuality, they are against what the MGRM (Malta Gay Rights Movement) stands for. Moreover, he stated his position against the tunnel connecting Malta and Gozo.
ADPD
Carmel Cacopardo as leader for the ADPD answered the questions asked, instead of retaliating against his respective opponents. Cacopardo laid out his arguments in favour of a greener Malta through his proposal to increase protection of ODZ land whilst his argument that there is no space for a racing track and the limited area of land that is Malta.
When speaking about how ADPD would support artists, Cacopardo made a jab towards the budget allocated for the Malta Film Festival by the current Labour Government.
Partit Popolari
Paul Salamone started his speech talking about the current situation of the war in Ukraine, whilst referencing his experience in war-torn countries to which he felt emotional towards. Salamone continued his debate whilst emphasizing a more efficient transport system. He further talked about the rising housing prices and claimed that small apartments will start from a quarter of a million euro.
Salamone also argued in favour of providing women who wish to pursue abortion with aid and spoke in favour in adoption. Moreover, he stated his position against the tunnel connecting Malta and Gozo.
Nationalist Party
The leader of the PN, Bernard Grech did not waste time and immediately started throwing several Jabs at the Prime minister Robert Abela and his Party such as accusing the labour Party of Plagiarising their Manifesto. Grech talked about several issues such as the reality of inflation to which PN government will allocate a specific fund to tackle the issue. Grech continued to mention several proposals such as trackless tram to solve issues from public transport. Other issues raised by Grech, included the disastrous track record of the Labour Government with respect to the environment. Another PN proposal aimed towards students included a 25% increase in stipends for students that partake in student organisations and other NGO`s.
Labour Party
The Prime minister Robert Abela talked about several issues in the debate retaliating to the attacks from opposition leader Bernard Grech. Abela emphasised the tax refunds in the forms of cheques that will go out to the Maltese families in the coming days and weeks. In in response to Bernard Grech comments on the labour government track record on the environment Abela went on to mention the several environmental project and the vision of the labour government in regard to the environment. A certain issue was raised by ABBA leader Ivan Grech Mintoff where he argued that our current stance on the vaccine is discriminatory, to which Abela replied, emphasising not to make the vaccine a political argument. Abela also continued to talk about more proposals from the Labour government such as free public transport by this coming October.
Volt
While Volt was not invited to the debate, the candidates of the party showed up at the University to protest their exclusion from the debate. During their protest, candidates of Volt were interviewed by members of the Third Eye where they explained why they are protesting and showcased a number of their proposals. For the full interview click here.
Debate Conclusion
This debate marks the first time the Major political parties faced each other head to head. A point that the major political parties took seriously focusing much of the debate on responding and counter arguing each other while the smaller parties stick to safety by answering questions directly.
This debate attracted a lot of backlash from the general student population especially with regard to organization and reported selectivity in attendance and parties involved. However, It should be noted the general state of professionalism and efforts that was put into this by The KSU and University of Malta given the short period of time they had.
Photo Credit: Matthew Schembri