Marthese launches her campaign

What is it with these candidates these days? You can tell that they are dying for a US Presidential style election – they would kill for an aeroplane, a bus or a train in which to leap from State to State yelling their salvational messages at the four winds. Instead we get these fancy declarations of candidates putt-putting in eco-friendly vehicles or attempting desperately at giving meaning to the places where they speak.

Take Marthese Portelli, a law graduate, but who has given the impression of wanting to win over the hearts (and votes) of whatever housewives have survived the epidemy of political correctness. I say that with no meanness in mind. She does form part after all of the panoply of diverse candidates championed by Lawrence and masterminded by Simon. As I said on Sunday… there’s one for every occasion and Marthese Portelli is there for the aspirant Miss Housewives of the nation (do they still exist?).

Just read the coverage she got on  the Times (below) for her launching of the campaign. Balancing the economy, work and family? It sounds like the musings of a mara tad-dar out of her league with this “economy” business. And what about balancing “work and family”? No idea. Maybe it’s “try to find time to get home earlier darling… you really need to spend some time with the kids – and by the way are we still going out for the pizza in Bugibba next Saturday?”.

“Jobs need to be more flexible so that whoever wanted to work would be able to do so”. Am I the only one to think this is straight out of the Miss World repertoire of answers? The question keeps returning to my head: do the political parties screen candidates? Is there a “Potential to Say Ridiculous Things” test? Do they care?

If  you were still not convinced that we are right up there with “How I would save the world” kind of answers just read further and discover the joy of statements like “animals have feelings”. Marthese elbow into RMTT territory and pulls one up for the dogs. Immigration policy for Marthese echoes the thoughts of the man in the pub – showing she is miles behind star candidate Simon.

Bobs and a pretty face do not a good MEP make. I’m not sorry to have to point this out. It’s becoming a bad habit but I cherish being the “independent columnist” as David calls us. What you as electors have to ask yourselves is the following:

Someone, somewehere in Triq Herbert Ganado actually thought that this was the stuff with which to fill one of five (potentially six) seats we have in the EP.  That is how much they respect your need to be properly represented in Europe. Every seat is worth its weight in gold… if one of them is filled by a prototype Miss Universe aspirant you know who you’ve got to thank…

It’s the PLPN stupid!

From the Times:

Nationalist MEP candidate Marthese Portelli launched her campaign by spending half a day visiting places related to the main areas she wants to work on if elected.

She said finding a balance between the economy, work and the family was a central pillar for her, as was the need to create incentives for entrepreneurs to invest and generate more employment. She explained that jobs needed to be more flexible so that whoever wanted to work would be able to do so and she appealed for more investment in Gozo.

Dr Portelli called for the improvement of the environment and said animals had feelings just like human beings so NGOs working in this field needed to be given their due recognition.

She added that Malta had to be given more financial and operational help from other EU countries to control the human tragedy of illegal immigration.

As a member of the EP she said she would assist people apply for EU funds by helping them identify the particular programmes and fill in the application forms.