Serbian-Maltese Labour Candidate: ‘I Feel Hurt And Betrayed By PN Stoking The Fire Of Hatred’
A Serbian-Maltese local council candidate for the Labour Party has said he feels “hurt and betrayed” by the Nationalist Party’s anti-foreigner rhetoric.
“Why are some people making me feel different? Why are some political parties think we are two classes of people?” Alexandre Pevac, who will contest the St Paul’s Bay council election, said at the PL’s general conference today. “Do they think that they’re pure and we’re not? I feel hurt and betrayed when I hear the PN stoke the fire of hatred with words of what he calls foreigners. How do I explain those words to my daughter? Do I have to apologise to her that her surname is weird or that her name is strange? I want my daughters to feel safe her like everybody else.”
Pevac, a teacher who has been living in Malta for over a decade, said he is contesting the local council election because he wants to give something back to the island.
“I’m not a rich man but I’m enriched because of the love I get from my neighbours, my family, my co-workers, my friends and my students,” he said. “I’m not treated any differently from anybody else.”
Praising the PL for making Malta more open to foreigners, he urged the country’s foreign community to get more involved.
“Sometimes I get the feeling that foreigners don’t really feel that Malta is their home,” he said. “I want them to feel included, to feel what the genuine Maltese are like. I want them to contribute more to our social life in keeping our country safe and clean and great.”
“I want them to feel Maltese as much as I do. I want them to make Malta more prosperous, for us to celebrate our diversity rather than being afraid of it.”
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