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Adrian Delia Makes Bold Admission On Spring Hunting

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The Nationalist Party’s new leader Adrian Delia has broken the mould of Maltese politics, divulging he had voted to ban spring hunting in the 2015 referendum. 

Delia made this frank admission during an interview with Lovin Malta, which will be published later today.

“I voted against spring hunting, not because I’m against it in principle but because I was worried about the scarcity of bird life in Malta and that hunting was contributing to rendering birds extinct,” he said. 

Hunters

The hunting lobby won the 2015 referendum by a razor-thin majority. Photo: Reuters

Critics of spring hunting argue that birds shouldn’t be killed while they are migrating south to breed and have also warned the spring hunting season serves as a smokescreen for hunters to shoot down protected birds. 

However, Maltese politicians have by and large supported hunters over bird conservationists and Delia’s declaration makes him a clear outlier in this regard.

Indeed, during the referendum campaign, both Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Opposition leader Simon Busuttil came out in favour of spring hunting and the only MP who said they were against it was Marlene Farrugia, back then still a Labour MP.

Despite the political backing behind the hunting lobby, the spring hunting referendum was a very close call – and the annual practice was only retained by a slim 50.4% majority. 

Since the referendum, a moratorium has been imposed on the the hunting of turtledove in spring on account of the species’ declining population. This has limited spring hunting to the hunting of quail.

Was this a brave move by Delia or has he just shot himself in the foot? 

READ NEXT: 8 Autumn Hunting Illegalities To Watch Out For In Malta

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

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