French national television, last Tuesday: and Malta stars once more
Published:
January 24, 2014 at 2:44am
The Nationalist Party’s Evil PR Machine has really got to stop this. Now this is just too, too much.
This went out live on national television in France last Tuesday. The gist of the discussion? ‘650,000 euros for a Maltese passport. So what’s this about then – making a quick buck? Yes.’
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Let’s do our journalist’s job once again.
Here’s Bruno Gollnisch on why he voted for the sale of passports at the European Parliament:
http://gollnisch.com/2014/01/17/la-citoyennete-europeenne-outil-ideologique/
He thinks Malta’s new Maltese will “learn the language” and “integrate”. Yeah, right. They don’t even have to set foot here, except to collect their passport.
Here’s Le Monde on 18th January:
http://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2014/01/18/a-malte-on-peut-desormais-obtenir-un-passeport-moyennant-650-000-euros_4350431_3210.html
There is not even the need to come to Malta to collect the passport. I collected my latest passport from the Malta High Commission in London.
But that’s a renewed passport, not a new one. For a new one, you need to collect it in person. However, I defer to you on matters of diplomatic regulations.
HPB, that is not exactly what Gollnisch said. Historically nationalist, racist and anti-European, his vote is a protest one aimed at pro-EU and pro-immigration citizens.
In a nutshell, he’s saying, “In the past you wanted to hand out citizenship to practically anyone, now that other countries are selling it, you’re making a big fuss about it”
“Il y a quelques années, vous vouliez même l’octroyer à n’importe quel résident extra-européen, avec des conditions minimales. Il est étonnant que vous défendiez aujourd’hui ce que vous vouliez brader hier.”
I know exactly what Gollnisch said, and I wasn’t translating, but commenting on the glaring inconsistency in Bruno Gollnisch’s justification of his vote.
Nationalists like Gollnisch oppose what they say is European leniency towards illegal immigrants because those immigrants can get a European passport while making no effort to assimilate, integrate or even learn the language.
Just like that Chinese billionaire.
So Gollnisch’s vote in favour of the Maltese passport scheme was cutting off his nose to spite his face. A sort of self hu go fik, as it were.
With racialists like Norman Lowell, it isn’t just illegal immigrants who are a problem, but non-Europids regardless of their legal status. If he won’t have non-Europids pollute Europid blood, then surely the first step is to prevent non-Europids from obtaining European passports. Yet beyond a few jibes a the ‘Squallid Socialists’, he’s been singularly quiet about this whole business. His acolytes (where is Stephen Farrugia), who were busy commenting everywhere before the election, are nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps he is just embarrassed at having supported an obviously anti-Imperium party. But with the EU Parliament elections coming up, we expect Lowell to define his position with respect to the governing party. He’s been skirting around the problem, and I think I know why: it would alienate his voter base.
HPB, I’m at an age where I can’t really be bothered to analyse these loons any more. They will always find a justification to their premises.
Gollnisch – an expert in Nipponic language married to a Japanese lady – is a product of the 19th century mentality which still thrives within the French upper middle class families. One must bear in mind that the Front National is constituted of two social groups: people living in high immigration areas and the upper-middle class/lower-rank nobility .
Lowell is a racist comedian whose posterity will rely on his coinage of catchphrases that are excellent qualifiers of Maltese antics.
For those of you who don’t understand French, the journalist says that while Malta is the country going the furthest in terms of this type of legislation, there is competition among European states notably Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Austria to sell the benefits of freedom of movement in the European Union.
Calling for a harmonisation of citizenship laws, where – as is the case with fiscal laws – the concern is the time it will take the EU to get there.
Also, mentioned several times: “the grinding of the teeth in Brussels”: People are not happy. The concern goes directly to whole mafia and criminal networks slipping in and the Schengen issues.
En passant, and one should be aware of what passes for a casual comment – and what isn’t – should citizenship be sold?
Followed by: whilst other countries sell a “visa,” Malta, owning very few natural resources, is the only EU country trying to do so with a passport to the whole of the EU and Schengen area, for that (low) price from the 1st February.
The EU Observer’s report on the European Commission’s views regarding the legality of the passport scheme makes it clear what “consequences” Commissioner Reding was referring to in her interview with the Times of Malta.
Malta may have the right to establish its own conditions for granting citizenship but, under the ‘Nottebohm principle’, other states are not obliged under international law to recognize citizenship granted under conditions which are not “in accordance with generally recognized principles in regard to nationality” i.e. if there is no genuine link between the individual and the state.
In the Times of Malta interview, Commissioner Reding said “you can imagine now if everybody starts to put into question the Maltese passport, your passport for instance, asking is that a real Maltese or is that …someone who has bought the Maltese passport”.
The Prime Minister and his legal advisers have not done their homework well enough.
If the scheme is put into effect, all our passports and our children’s passports can be questioned. Other states need not wait for the outcome of legal proceedings to do so. This is serious.
My plea to every Maltese citizen is: let us put pressure on the Government to stop this crazy scheme before it’s too late.
I am going to call Mr. Hollande, Joseph’s friend, and will ask him to intervene with the French media to stop this.
“Finance Minister Edward Scicluna yesterday referred to what he had told a European Parliament committee on December 5 about changes to the scheme. He insisted that “no one really followed that speech in Brussels”. From today’s Times of Malta.
And thank God for that, because had they heard it, they would have realised it was all hogwash, and not one single thing he said in that barely coherent speech was in fact adhered to.
Residency? Out of the window.
Fifty passports per year as a (misleading) example? Now up to 1800 applicants and their families. Eur 80 million? Now up to Eur 1 billion. What a mess they got themselves into.
“The government does not hide this: it’s about putting money in its coffers”.
The comment by Guy Verhofstadt is particularly damning: he is Liberal (i.e. no natural ally of PN), but he is also a former Prime Minister of Belgium and the Liberal candidate for the post of European Commission President.
Once again, way to go, Prime Minister.
We have to attach famous names to our efforts without thinking about the ultimate outcome:
http://www.inewsmalta.com/dart/20140124-ismijiet-importanti-al-konferenza-ta-the-economist-dwar-malta
I doubt the majority of the conference participants will be in favour of the passport sale scam and would do well to express their opinion. Of course, I doubt Labour media will never cover that aspect.
Very, very worrying, to say the least. The main thing here is that the sale of passports was not included in the Labour Party’s electoral programme. This means the government has no mandate to go ahead.
The PM has played a fast one on all us Maltese, however and whatever we voted. Disgusting, Mr. Prime Minister. Really disgusting – conning and cheating the people whose trust you won.
1) “C’est uniquement une affaire de gros sous!”
It’s only a matter of big money.
2) “Le probleme […] est que ils ouvrent tout l’espace Schengen à […] ces pesonnes [non-EU citizens]”
The problem is that this opens up the Schengen zone to all these non-EU citizens.
By the way – this is probably France’s most followed morning show.
Those who voted for the Labour Party have no excuse. They should have had the good sense to work out what would follow from bringing back the old faces rom Mintoffian times, and from all that glorification of Mintoff.
Hardcore Labourites are all dipped in the cult of Mintoff and they would love nothing more than to go back to the old times of the 1970s / mid 80s for a re-run of the Mintoff- KMB glory years.
They love that punishing era and want it to go on and on.
They are willing to see it re-play its self out of spite and hatred.
Time or era of present living does matter to them; progress is an imaginary concept that has no meaning on their way thinking.
Brainwashed individuals act the same way, as only the stressed points forced in by their handler matter.
Only what is burnt into their brain matters and other thoughts are just side noise of no importance. Effective indoctrination does these things.
Never underestimate the PL’s hatred of the citizens of Malta.
That whole political party is like a sadistic concentration camp commander who can’t wait to devise new ways to torture the inmates for the sheer fun of it, because he can and no one can stop him.
The Castro brothers in Cuba are also very much like that, even 55 years later.
Veru tal-misthija kif f’anqas minn sena l-gvern ta’ Joseph Muscat irnexxielu jhammeg isem pajjizna b’decizjoni mghaggla u egojistika bhal din.
Dawn il-pajjizi kollha qed joqomsu ghax irrejalizzaw li se jintlaqtu hazin huma stess. Ghax jafu li min se jixtri l-passaport Malti mhux se jixtrih ghax fih xi valur fih inniffsu imma ghax bih ikun jista’ jmur joqghod f’xi pajjiz iehor membru ta’ l-Unjoni Ewropeja. U aktar ma pajjiz ikun kbir aktar hemm cans li jkun jista’ jhawwad halli jistaghna aktar.
It is very true to say that Joseph Muscat fooled the people who trusted him with their vote, because this scheme was never mentioned before the elections.
However, I still cannot understand how people trusted him and gave him their vote, when he never gave any indication to what his concrete plans for the future of Malta were during the electoral campaign.
His only answers were always, ‘electricity bills would be reduced by 25%’ and ‘we have a roadmap’. How can I trust a person who will not tell me what is in that roadmap?
Unfortunately, to the detriment of us all, we are now taking a look at that roadmap and its unpleasant roads.
“Malte: ‘La bataille de Bruxelles.” How embarrassing.