The European Parliament is renaming its press conference hall in honour of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The decision was announced by the Parliament’s President Antonio Tajani this afternoon.
The European Court today held a minute silence in honour of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Three hundred members of staff from European institutions based in Luxembourg met to pay their respects.
Tomorrow the European Parliament is stopping its business to hear Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family.
And in her own country?
The government this evening refused to even discuss the issues raised by Matthew Caruana Galizia on institutional change, shared so eloquently by the civil society march of yesterday. Whilst the European Parliament tomorrow will stop to listen to the Caruana Galizias, the Maltese Parliament treats them with contempt.
In our courts and our public offices, in our schools and our public institutions, there was no minute silence held one week after the first ever successful political assassination in our country’s modern history. Successful of course is a painfully inappropriate word except from the point of view of the perpetrator and the innocent by-standers benefiting from this.
There were some remarkable exceptions to this of course. There were personal initiatives of people that make the failure of the government to acknowledge public grief even more glaring. A number of judges held a minute silence today on their own initiative.
Toni Abela and Francesco Depasquale — the ones I’m aware of for there could have been others — took the time today to have everyone in their court room pause and remember the victim of this barbaric assassination. Theirs was a good example which should have come from all our administrators: Ministers, civil servants, policemen, teachers, Parliamentarians, even the President herself. Should have. It seems that without Daphne with us there is no one left to admonish our authorities to remember their manners.
Cynics would tell you these ceremonies change nothing. But ceremonies are rituals of collective action. They are the religion of a republic in grief for a great loss to the community. They represent the spirit of belonging. Herein lies real unity. Not in compliance with a regime’s diktat that has decided that enough time has passed since the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia that now the agenda can force us back on to the koolaid agenda of l-aqwa żmien.