The Local Council of Valletta is at 6.30pm this evening debating a motion from one of its Councillors to remove the flowers, candles and messages left at the Great Siege Memorial in memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia and in protest for the continued impunity of those who ordered her death or otherwise caused it to happen.
Glenn Bedingfield’s hurtful taunt form his state-funded blog was in aid of the coordinated build-up to tonight’s discussion. Support for this act of state-controlled fascism has been mobilised over the last several days in order to put pressure on the Valletta Local Council.
Jason Micallef, Emmanuel Cuschieri and several others have rolled up their macho sleeves in anticipation of this. They say ‘the law must be obeyed’ citing laws that do not exist. If they did, who is going to arrest the President when she lays wreaths at the foot of the same memorial on 8th September?
The irony is should the Council decide to act on its Councillor’s motion, it would over-step its powers at law. The power to act on the Great Siege Memorial is not in the Local Council’s hands but in the hands of the central government who, you will recall, acted incredibly swiftly to remove crooks-everywhere t-shirts that #occupyjustice placed a month ago over several memorials throughout the country.
But they realise the sensitivity of this specific protest site, across from the Courts, and they are putting pressure on the Valletta Local Council to have someone to hide behind.
I’m going to the Valletta Local Council – the ex-Café Premier – tonight and hope to ask for the opportunity to insist on every citizen’s right to protest, with all due care not to hurt and harm anyone.
Glenn Bedingfield warned everyone yesterday that flowers and candles provoke and justify vandalism. Citizens who hold their basic freedoms dear cannot take this lying down.