Malta’s new Govt looks to West

Press, 22 May 1987, Page 5

Malta’s new Govt looks to West

By

HUGH POPE

NZPA-Reuter Valletta Malta’s newly elected Prime Minister, Mr Eddie Fenech Adami, pledged to follow pro-Western, freemarket policies as calm returned to the island after recent turbulent victory celebrations by the Nationalist Party. The socialist Labour Party, ousted after 16 years in office, said about 35 supporters were slightly scratched or bruised in scuffles after the conservative Nationalists narrowly triumphed in the recent Parliamentary election. Labour said that 28 of its clubs were vandalised during the Nationalists’ celebrations.

“It is not possible to count the number of break-ins and thefts from Labour activists’ houses,” said the Labour Party’s general secretary, MarieLouise Coreira. The houses included those of two outgoing Labour Ministers.

Cheering, flag-waving

motorcades of Nationalists took to the streets throughout Malta for more than 24 hours and only faded away after the Nationalist leader and new Prime Minister, Mr Fenech Adami, made a televised appeal for calm and order. Two Labour clubhouses were set ablaze but damage was superficial. Party clubhouses on village and town squares in Malta are a focal point of society. Nationalist Party officials pointed out that Labour Party supporters had attacked Nationalist clubs more than 100 times during Labour’s rule and said Nationalist leaders had done their best to prevent revenge being taken. “A few young people who pass by clubs do these things. You can’t control them,” said a Nationalist official. Mr Fenech Adami was sworn into office amid emotional scenes. In his television speech, he repeated the dominant

theme of his campaign that his Government would aim to reconcile the deep, almost 50-50, Labour-Nationalist split dividing the 340,000 Maltese.

A peace pact between Mr Fenech Adami and the former Labour Prime Minister, Mr Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, both lawyers, aged 53, has helped keep electoral violence to a minimum, diplomats said.

“We think that Malta’s security needs to be guaranteed by friendly Western European countries. We will sign agreements that cater for Malta’s security,” Mr Fenech Adami said.

The Nationalists wanted to strengthen an existing agreement with Italy, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Community, but they would not offer military bases to foreign powers, forbidden by Malta’s constitution. While planning closer links with Western Europe, the Nationalists would seek good relations with Libya and the Soviet Union and would not abrogate treaties with them, he said. The Nationalists wanted to liberalise the Statedominated economy built up under Labour and encourage foreign investment.