This feature on German TV ZDF covered this month's vigil marking 19 months since the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta. It is part of a series covering "Europe's borders" ahead of this weekend's EP elections. The feature is obviously in German but if you don't speak the language it's still worth taking a [...]
(Political) Realism often revolves around power and security, not only in respects of international relations but up to an extent also in domestic environs. Realism, expounded up by Thucydides, Machiavelli and later Hobbes and Rousseau, is a general theory on how politics usually work. Focussing on a domestic enclave it theorises on human behaviour that [...]
Every Maltese election is defined, at least in part, by fear. Fear that the wrong party will gain a majority, and with that majority and increased power will come repression and punishment, for daring to resist and for daring to be different. In this climate of fear, we often end up voting not for the [...]
Rule of law: the #ECJ will deliver its judgment relating to the lowering of the retirement age for Supreme Court judges in #Poland on the 24th of June (C-619/18) — EU Court of Justice (@EUCourtPress) May 23, 2019 A month from today the European Court of Justice will decide on the important case the European [...]
Joe Sammut gets you a Fiat Panda. But if you're ambitions are more contained, Owen Bonnici will get you baked beans. Make sure you dress up for that one as well.
Justin-Borg Barthet is a Senior Lecturer in European Law at Aberdeen University. He published today this blog post on specialist Constitutional Law web-site "Verfassungsblog" (Verfassungs is German for 'constitutional') commenting on yesterday's Court decision to continue to hear Repubblika's arguments claiming Malta's method of judicial appointments is in breach of EU law. On the question [...]
Look at this post by Norman Vella. It explains how for 6 years he’s been in court waiting for the government that he has sued to produce one witness or one shred of evidence why in their view he was lawfully dismissed. Six years, and today he got told the case won’t continue before October. [...]
What does Joe Sammut think about climate change, sustainable economy, social inclusion, infrastructural priorities, the two state solution for Israel and Palestine? Who cares? He got me a car! They look mighty pleased.
Candidates often find flattering the furious attention from the opposite side of politics. At least they say they're flattered. Cyrus Engerer might say that I think even the hardest core, mindless zombie Labourite should not vote for him because I somehow think he's some form of political inconvenience. When of course the reason I think [...]
Joseph Muscat was delivering a party speech this evening. I watched a man of power lie through his teeth like a child with his face smeared in chocolate. It’s not the first time. But it’s sad and mad and bad every time. Entirely bereft of token blacks on the benches that surround him now that [...]
Repubblika statement Repubblika refers to the government's official statement 191133. It is worrying though unsurprising that the government published statements that include lies on facts. Firstly, the today's court case does not belong to Simon Busuttil and Jason Azzopardi ... inasmuch as it does not belong to Peter Grech and Victoria Buttigieg. Lawyers for parties [...]
The First Hall of the Civil Court presided by Judge Mark Chetcuti, today rejected the government’s claim that Repubblika has no legal standing in arguing that the government should not be appointing judges and magistrates without reforming the judicial appointments system. The Court found that Repubblika was eligible to make this claim under the Charter [...]
A draft Council of Europe resolution due for approval in its Parliamentary Assembly before the summer calls for reforms in Malta’ constitutional framework to be conducted through an “open, widely inclusive and transparent process.” The draft resolution is based on findings of a draft report that criticises Malta’s government and opposition for conducting their ongoing [...]
My article in this month's Money Magazine: A new dawn will rise At the end of every long night, a new dawn rises. A new dawn must rise over the long, cold night of inadequacy that we shiver under. It may need to get worse before it gets better, but the symptoms of terminal crisis [...]
Sent in by someone known to me. When I read the article by Adam Zarb-Cousin I could only empathise. And my reaction to his article is: 'Do not return to Malta'. People are being bullied out of their homes and not only, even the country. My husband and I returned from Europe 6 years ago. [...]
A listener on a Rai radio show today wrote in to remark on the irony of the EU awarding Malta a prize for sustainable development when Malta’s economic development appears to rely on the unsustainable sale of European citizenship to crooks and oligarchs from around the world. The show was today’s edition of Radio Tre [...]
A draft report to be discussed next week by the Council of Europe’s Legal Affairs Committee finds that the rushed appointment of three new Magistrates and three promoted Judges just days before Repubblika’s case against the government was due to be heard “shows contempt for the courts and is entirely at odds with the Prime [...]
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has received a draft report from one of its own that it has commissioned to understand the context of the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia and what happened in Malta since then. The report will be discussed before the Assembly’s summer recess and will be accompanied by [...]
The headline of today’s Times of Malta screams the government spin that they’re treating the murder of Lassana Cisse with the seriousness it deserves. They are but not for the reasons they profess. They are doing so because they realise they bear direct, political responsibility that in a functioning democracy would have had them kicked [...]
Sundry bigots, racists, holocaust deniers, Nazi-sympathisers and self-described patriots are on my Facebook page saying I’m spreading hate with my posts criticising them. They say they’re not the ones spreading hate speech, I am. I don’t criticise them for their speech as much as for their ideas. Although words are the tools of my trade, [...]