Bit of a drama queen, isn’t she. But you can tell she just loves it. Makes a change from selling toys and catsuits.
Marlene Mizzi on Facebook, in response to news that the Nationalist Party has approved Norman Vella as a candidate for the European Parliament elections:
I must be doing something wrong ,or missing something important here! I have been an MEP for 10 months now ,and believe me ,I found no holiday in Brussels or Strasbourg !!! I have not been to the Grande Place more than a few times , and know very little of Brussels ,due to lack of free time . I fly to / from Malta twice a week, spending more time in airports and airplanes than I do at home, ( and if you think that is fun, then think again ). I live 4 days in one country and 3 days in another. I am at the office / parliament/ meetings from 9 am to 9pm most days. When in Strasbourg ,for the plenary sessions, I often go ‘home’ at 11 pm, especially if I am following a debate and intend making an intervention. I earn what the other 950+ MEPs earn ….irrespective of their performance and/or attendance. NO, I am not asking for sympathy , and nor am I complaining – because I knew what I was in for – and I love the job and the hard work that comes with it. And yes, it is a well paid post. But, I would like to correct the wrong impression about what being an MEP involves. For those WHO TAKE THE JOB SERIOUSLY Brussels is no holiday ..and for those who are throwing in their candidature because they think they will earn a lot of money while having a holiday , are in for a big ,nasty surprise…..if they want to do the job seriously , of course! And if those who think that being an MEP , means riding the gravy train whilst having a jolly good time playing the tourist in Brussels, then, damn it , they must know something I don’t and …….I must be doing something terribly wrong and missing out on a lot of fun!!!
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For someone so busy, she surely finds to time to shop a lot.
And to take selfies.
Maybe she should ask Attard Montalto for some tips on work-life balance of an MEP
Why Attard Montalto? She should ask her boss directly.
Joseph Cuschieri is working harder, Mrs Mizzi. Ask him for tips.
I like :)
John Attard Montaldo relaxes by taking many cruises.
And paid exactly the same as Mizzi who spends 12 hours a day on the job while Montalto sips margaritas on some cruise in warmer climes! Sob, sob.
No real justice in this world, Marlene.
Someone using that kind of punctuation needs to see a psychiatrist not the Grande Place.
Yes, damn it!
Oh no, another one serving a 4 year sentence in Brussels.
Waiting for Norman Vella’s reply. Please, Norman, make it as colourful as possible.
She flies to/from Malta once, not twice, a week. Twice sounds better.
And at least one week a month she is in Malta. In theory in that week she should be listening to her constituents. Is she?
I think she is referring to the king of MEP holidays, John Attard Montaldo.
Well, done, Marlene. Now, just keep quiet. No one cares about your stress levels, private life and coping skills.
And yet she finds time for Facebook.
“I am at the office / parliament/ meetings from 9 am to 9pm most days.”
Boohoo.
Looks like someone isn’t getting laid.
How pathetic.
Mrs Mizzi should ask her boss, Joseph Muscat, for some advice on how to cope. He seems to have written his doctoral thesis while an MEP, and he didn’t bother returning to Malta every week, even though he had a wife here.
He campaigned heavily against the EU insisting it was not good for Malta, and then went off to become a MEP and didn’t exactly bust a gut doing that job.
And now we have his mentor Alfred Sant treading the same path.
The Labour Party was and still is against the EU, no matter – miskina – how hard Marlene Mizzi is working and flying in and out to see her husband the judge (is he still allowing his official car and chauffeur to be used for toy deliveries?) and see to her toyshop.
What attracts them to Brussels is status and the hefty pay that comes along with it.
Are we expected to chip in and buy her a large towel, so she can mop the sweat off her brow or what?
Never mind, she will soon be replaced by somebody whose’ preferred pastime is sleeping and reading turgid German novels, and seeing what he gets up to when he’s awake (freezing EU applications, CET, quarrelling with backbenchers who were more powerful than him….), than that isn’t so bad.
Did anyone ask her? I certainly didn’t, so what is she on about? We don’t care, Mrs Mizzi. We really really don’t care.
And she seems to spend a helluva long time on Facebook.
Dear Marlene,
We are not imbeciles, we know what it entails to be an MEP.
However, I suggest you explain this to some of your fellow Maltese socialists, who are meant to be in parliament, here in Malta or in Brussels/Strasbourg, or at their Ministry office, and are instead performing operations, seeing patients, travelling to Bali for ‘WTO meetings’ or taking pictures of their breakfast plate and the gym at various hotels in different countries.
Simply amazing – what an amateur.
It wouldn’t be the first time that Marlene Mizzi “must be doing something terribly wrong”. Think Sea Malta.
And who gives a flying f*ck what Marlene, or indeed any of our batch of MEPs, does?
She wouldn’t say any of these words if she really knew what she was in for.
After her woeful description, there is only one thing to say: “No one is forcing you to stay in Brussels – resign and return home to your toyshop and boutique.”
Shouldn’t the Rt. Hon be located in Brussels? Why is she flying to Malta weekly? Who is paying the fares?
[Daphne – MEPs generally return to their constituency every week. They have an allowance for the purpose.]
No wonder Europe is a big mess. What a waste of taxpayer’s money.
Typical Labour. They only think of milking the system and riding the gravy train when given any position of responsibility, become frustrated when they realise it involves a bit of work, and then think everyone’s attitude is like their own when they see someone else trying to do something right.
My heart bleeds for Marlene Mizzi.
Min jikriha joqghod ghaliha, Marlene, ruhi.
Jekk xbajt – bhal ma kien xeba’ xi hadd qablek meta poggewh Kummissarju – dejjem tista’ titlaq, tafx.
Wara kollox, ghad fadallek hafna biex forsi jtuk ‘Gieh ir-Repubblika’ – a meno che ma tafx tbazwar xi bicca kanzunetta li trebbhek xi bicca premju tat-tfal.
There are 751 MEPs, not 950+.
She doesn’t even know the basics and wants to convince us she actually does some work.
Probably she is in Parliament, but because she would be bored staying at home otherwise – not because she is hard at work.
It would be interesting to know what work she is actually doing, how many reports is she dishing out every week?
What kind and type of reports? How many plenary speeches a week? Are these reports and speeches published anywhere for public scrutiny?
It’s Grand Place not GRANDE Place, Mrs Mizzi.
Possibbli qatt ma sabet hin bies izzur sew Brussels?
It should be Grand’ Place (contraction of ‘grande’) as ‘place’ in French is feminine.
It’s not a contraction, but the old form of the feminine.
In Old French, you had: grant (Masculine) = grand (modern) and grand (Feminine) = grande (modern).
That is why hyphened adjectives in modern French still use “grand” for feminine nouns. It’s a lexification-thingumijig. .e.g grand-faim, or grand-chose, or grand-croix (which should be familiar to the Maltese, obsessed as they are with titles of nobility and Chevs.).
So Marlene is wrong, Anton Agius is right, and Joe Fenech is wrong for the right reasons but right for the wrong reasons.
950+ MEPs – does she not even know how many MEPs make up the European Parliament?
From the EP’s official website:
The European Parliament is made up of 766 Members elected in the 28 Member States of the enlarged European Union. Since 1979 MEPs have been elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year period.
Are we supposed to be impressed just because she is doing her (taxpayer-paid) job? If she is finding the alleged long hours and travelling too much, maybe she should resign.
I know of many jobs which have similar conditions, none of which pay so well nor offer comparative benefits.
She should be grateful that with such awful writing/punctuation skills she secured herself such a job. Mediocrity isn’t easily tolerated in the EU Parliament. I’m sure many of her fellow 950+ MEPs laugh behind her back when reading her reports, while the others pity her.
950 MEPS? Where did she get that figure? She’s off the mark by around 200.
“I am at the office / parliament/ meetings from 9 am to 9pm most days.”
So she does what pretty much every other person with a professional occupation in Malta does, except that she does it on “most days” rather than every day, and with the fundamental difference that she’s earning twice or thrice as much.
With all this going on, I’m amazed she manages to spend so much time on Facebook.
What exactly does Marlene Mizzi want from us? Sympathy? Empathy? Solidarity? Admiration? Our vote in June?
And yet no mention as to what she is doing ‘in Brussels’, and what ‘interventions’ she has made/intends making or in which debates she has participated/will participate.
A woman of no substance.
All they want is easy money.
Sounds like the poor dear had a bit of a rude awakening then, if what she claims is accurate. Quite a Freudian flavour in her FB rant.
She sought the fabled Gravy Train, but sadly she soon realized she’d actually need to work for her money, poor old thing!
“I am at the office / parliament/ meetings from 9 am to 9pm most days.”
Oh wow. I’m really impressed.
I’m at my laptop from 9am to 11pm as a matter of course and pulling nights to 1am is not a rare occurrence.
I have to slow down. Perhaps I can get elected to the EP.
She only works half days then.
I’m at my workplace from 07:00 to 15:30 Monday to Friday.
I have job satisfaction and if I stay after hours I’m paid at one and a half rate. Every four weeks I work eight hours overtime on Saturday.
At my leisure I do some repair jobs in the house. Sometimes I watch TV, go for a walk, swim, or do some gardening.
I earn enough.
As for flying here and there, I have this to say to Mrs Mizzi: “been there, done that”, and not between Brussels and Malta, either. I got deep vein thrombosis on one of my frequent long-haul work-related flights.
So stop complaining, and get out of the proverbial kitchen, like I did.
Wherever Merlene Mizzi has her childish rants she is still an MEP representing our country.
She should stop embarrassing the nation with her amateur behaviour.
True professionals just get on with their jobs and let others be the judge of their performance. Of course, this would be way out of her league.
Making statements on Facebook doesn’t get one anywhere.
She should get off Facebook and get out there. Facebook shouldn’t be the ‘safe means’ of doing politics. It rather is the lazy short cut method which tries had to reach out to people when in reality it can’t because it’s pretty virtual and appeals to the very laid back politicians.
I know people who work harder and for longer hours running a football club, on a voluntary basis. Not impressed, Mrs Mizzi.
And yet she has time to manage two Facebook profiles and upload photographs of herself taken in Strasbourg at Christmas time. What a multi tasking lady.
Miskina, hi biss kapaci.
I find it very strange that Mrs Mizzi feels she needs to explain what she does and the long hours she puts in.
There are people who work 6 days a week for more than 12 hours a day and most of them don’t work in fancy palaces and buildings or get a chance to fly about Europe (collecting flight points and availing themselves of all the business lounges including the free flowing wine and food) but the work they do is vital to every day life unlike Mrs Mizzi’s job.
If you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen, but do not try to get sympathy by telling the world you only work three days a week and sometimes for 12 hours a day.
As an MEP she is based in Brussels. There is no need for her to return to Malta every weekend. Her daughter is a grown woman, and married with her own home. Her husband can spare her for a few weeks at a stretch.
If she is one of those who moans all the time about missing Kinnie and Twistees then she would have been better off in Malta continuing to run her business.
For Christ’s sake you are a grown up, Mrs Mizzi, and so are your husband and only daughter.
The PN have 2 MEPS and they do 10 times the work performed by 4 Labour MEPs. What a fxxxxx waste of money.
Oh well, you know what they say…’If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen’.
If she can stand the heat, then she must be very happy in her hot kitchen.
The apple never falls far from the tree and they’re all pretty much cut out of the same cloth and they never change.
All talk talk talk but no walk walk walk.
Did she write this during one of the plenary sessions?
These people would rather have the poor poorer provided that those who became rich in a short span of time, will continue to get richer.
Her job objective was having fun.
Now she is disappointed that it did not turn out that way.
Oh miskina, what a life. We are all so grateful.
What were you expecting, Marlene – money for nothing?
Many, many people work very, very hard especially in the private sector where we have no holidays or weekends or husbands with state-paid cars and chauffeurs to drive us and our sales parcels around.
Yes, we expect you to work hard because that’s why you’re paid good money and that’s why you’re there.
John Dalli once said something similar.
Marlene cara … ma chi te lo fa fare?
Ghax hi trida ta “look at me, I’m important, I’m Marlene Mizzi”.
This is her way of getting people to talk about her by playing the victim: ‘kemm hi biezla’, ‘kemm hi iddedikata, thalli il-familja biex tmur xoghol’.
What a tedious person – “a bit of a drama queen” is way understated.
“But, I would like to correct the wrong impression about what being an MEP involves. For those WHO TAKE THE JOB SERIOUSLY Brussels is no holiday…”
Life is what you make it, Marlene. Just look at your party colleagues.
Isn’t Labour MEP John Attard Montalto having a whale of a time travelling around the globe on cruise ships and whatnot?
Are you telling us that he wasn’t taking the job seriously?
I think he has had his fill now. By any chance did he ever push the wrong voting button like the “serious” MEP Ms Mizzi did?
Taf li qabbistli d-dmugh, Marlene?
This time round she didn’t remind us that she also went to Addis, flew the Dreamliner of Ethiopian Airlines and had a ‘seksi’ pic at a buna ceremony surrounded by gracious “native” Abyssinian girls…Found her traces there three weeks ago while on a stop-over at Bole airport.
Marlene Mizzi is unlikely to make it back to the European Parliament in the upcoming elections.
Li int MEP miskina Malta u specjalment daw l-injoranti li vvutawlek, Marlene.
Min jaf kemm ergajt dahhaqt nies bik fl-Ewropa jekk raw dan li ktibt fuq il-Facebook.
Intkom il-Laburisti dejjem sibtu dik is-sezzjoni tal-poplu Malti injoranta u ghadkom taghhdu iz-zmien bihom bhal ma’ ghamel Joseph Muscat fl-ahhar elezzjoni.
Seems like the gravy has turned sour for some :)
Dalgħodu wħud minnkom qaluli biex inwieġeb għal stqarrija (araha fil-link) li l-MEP Laburista Marlene Mizzi għamlet fuq Facebook b’risposta għal aħbar li kien hemm dwar il-kandidatura prospettiva tiegħi. Se niddiżappuntakom. Nemmen li d-diskussjoni li l-politiċi għandhom jagħmlu mhix dwar il-kundizzjonijiet tax-xogħol tagħhom, imma dwar il-kundizzjonijiet tax-xogħol u l-pagi tal-ħaddiema u dwar kif se jinħoloq iktar xogħol u xogħol ta’ kwalita’ aħjar għal dawk il-ħaddiema li m’għandhomx impjieg jew li l-impjieg tagħhom ma jrendix biżżejjed biex jipprovdi ħajja diċenti għalihom u għall-familja tagħhom.
http://www.facebook.com/vellanorman
Mela ibda aghmel xoghlok u ggieled kontra t-takeover ta’ kollox mic-Cina. Il-founding fathers tal-Ewropa kellhom vizjoni protezzjonista, u l-protezzjonizmu mhux taboo.
Will your family members be voting for you Norman, or rather are they supporting you?.I know you and your family as extremely staunch Mintoffjani. I am not convinced that you have suddenly become a Nazzjonalist. Good luck anyway.
Naċċertak li jekk ningħata l-fiduċja se nkun qed nagħmel xogħoli bl-aħjar mod possibli kif dejjem għamilt. Bdanakollu naħseb li policies u strateġiji ta’ dan it-tip m’għandhomx ikunu deċiżi minn kandidati (jew MEPs) individwali imma għandhom ikunu diskussi u deċizi mill-partit li wieħed ikun qed jirrapprezenta.
Naturalmet jien se nkun qed nagħti l-kontribut tiegħi f’din id-diskussjoni internament, jekk inkun kandidat. F’dan il-kaz, jekk int tixtieq taqsam aktar ħsibijiet miegħi nieħu gost jekk tiktibli jew niltaqgħu. Napprezza ħafna l-kontribut tiegħek u nħoss li hemm bżonn ta’ aktar bħal dan il-kontribut għas-sempliċi raġuni li l-politiku ma jista’ qatt jippretendi u jaġixxi daqs li kieku jaf kollox hu.