As regards the organizers’ wish for the event not to be hijacked by party politics, I do see the point. The call for a better environment and the respective 6 demands are universally applicable to Malta and people should feel comfortable to attend the demonstration without being labelled as pertaining to one party or another.
Let us keep in mind that as far as elections go, the latest round of European and Local ones showed that the non-party constituencies in Malta are on the increase. It is also not on that one supports or disagrees with an environmental issue depending on who is in Government. The environment belongs to us all: let us have national consensus to protect it and to be sustainable.
If anything, political parties can then take up the demands - MPs and MEPs have the National and European Parliaments at their disposal and are free to put forward their respective proposals within these institutions. Voters are then free to judge the action of MPs accordingly in elections.
To date, the environment has never been a priority of any Government in Malta, and various lobbies such as the developers’ one keep having disproportionate influence over decision and non-decision-making within State and party politics. That is why various activists from different backgrounds have consistently voiced environmental concerns over the years. Long live environmentalism, whoever is in Government.
