Are you suggesting that yesterday’s passigata (you’re right there) should have been violent, for effect? I remember the days when such a protest would well have turned violent – the participants would have been pelted with stones, pipes and razor-blades embedded in potatoes from the roofs of buildings lining Republic Street.

And the police and riot police would beat and arrest victims as they ran away from the deluge. I wonder if Joseph Muscat, The Pampered Leader, would have strutted so nonchalantly down Republic Street then.

For me it was like a passigata man-nisa. Can you tell me how this rally may have an effect or pressure on government to turn back all the measures already taken?

In the past, such protests or rallies were just a waste of time because everything remained as it was.

In Tunisia, the protests turned violent because they were instigated by police and soldiers. But the Tunisians won the war after sacrificing their blood. If their protest were similar to the LP protest then be assured that Ben Ali would be still in power laughing at the crowd.