Yes to Europe

last updated 8 January 2015

Valletta, Malta

The tiny island of Malta voted this week to join the European Union in a hotly contested referendum. The opposition Labor Party wanted to keep Malta out, arguing that the island would lose jobs to cheap Sicilian labor and that E.U. hunting regulations would outlaw the Maltese tradition of shooting songbirds. But Labor failed to mount a coherent strategy to defeat the referendum. At different times, party leader Alfred Sant instructed followers to spoil their ballots, to abstain, or to vote no. After the yes votes won with 53 percent, Sant tried to argue that all the spoiled ballots and abstentions should also be counted as no votes, but the government ignored him. Malta is scheduled to become an E.U. member in 2004.