Prime Minister Robert Abela ripped into the Nationalist Party for proposing a bill that would have made “the right to live in a clean environment” a legally enforceable constitutional right.Abela called the bill, which was defeated in Parliament this week, a “ġennata” (lunacy) which would have had widespread negative repercussions on Maltese society.He said that associations of hobbyists would have been turned into “lobby groups”, defending the right to practice their hobbies in the face of legal action instituted by other groups of people.And he warned that the wording of the PN’s bill meant that they were bound to lose every time. View this post on InstagramA post shared by Lovin Malta (@lovinmalta)“No one can say I’m wrong because I’m speaking as a lawyer who has worked in the constitutional courts for 20 years,” he warned.“To be clear, the bill would have allowed an expat who has been invited to work here to wake up one fine day, decide that fireworks are bothering him because of the noise and environmental impact, go to court, and stop an entire village feast.”“And he would have won the case for sure, because the PN’s bill would have granted him a superior right to that enjoyed by feast enthusiasts.”Abela warned that the PN’s legal definition of “the right to the environment” was so vague and open-ended that it could have opened Pandora’s Box.“Particularly when you give that right constitutional supremacy and make it enforceable, it becomes an open-ended law. It means that different activities – including hunting, recreational fishing, motorsports, fireworks and commercial activities – were all placed under clear threat and danger.”Photo: Partit Laburista•