WATCH: ‘Malta’s Democracy Better Than Many EU Countries’, Says President George Vella
President George Vella has defended the state of democracy in Malta in an exclusive interview with Lovin Malta.
“I am quite happy about the state of democracy in Malta, even compared to many countries of the European Union. I’m not going to go beyond the EU but even compared to the EU, I would say that our state of democracy ranks very, very well.”
Vella was asked about a range of issues including abortion, cannabis decriminalisation and the fact that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat failed to get a top EU job.
“This was horse trading at its worst,” he said, of the way the EU picked its top roles.
“If you are submitting yourself or expecting to be part of this big race and this horse trading, you have to be ready to accept any decision.”
Asked whether Malta’s identity was changing at the expense of economic progress, Vella said identity was in constant flux but the rapid economic growth Malta has seen in the past 10-15 years was clearly coming at a price.
“You either carry on being a small economy with slow growth and the attendant results but if you rev up the engines as you have done in the last 10, 15 years and the economy practically after 2008 started going from good to getting better, one will have to pay a price. Now it depends, and this is the work politicians should do in my opinion, to decide where to stop and where to turn down the accelerator” he said.
