Don't sell your soul, Anna Mallia tells MLP

The spokesman of the recently set up Popular Labour Movement, Anna Mallia, yesterday warned Labour Party delegates that by voting in favour of the European Constitution they would be giving a helping hand to the Nationalists in the next general election.

Delegates at the party's general conference are being asked to vote on the stand which the Labour opposition should take when Parliament is called to ratify the Constitution in Parliament this month.

Ms Mallia said in a statement the delegates' vote would determine whether Labour would continue living up to its mission of protecting the weak or else "abandon everything to unite itself with the Nationalist Party in ratifying the EU Constitution". "The Popular Labour Movement understands that delegates are being expected to believe and trust those who are promising them a victory in the general election if the party ratifies the European Constitution," Dr Mallia said.

She recalled that similar arguments had been made prior to the 1998 and 2003 elections. On both occasions, the Labour Party had been defeated.

"An election is not won by selling your soul but by having a united party which has a clear understanding of its identity and its objectives," Dr Mallia said.

She said a yes vote in the general conference would betray the principles of the workers' movement. Malta would lose any hope it had to renegotiate the EU Constitution with all the countries where it had been rejected.