We’re all grown-ups here, so please can we stop the myth-making, childish propaganda?
Hannes Swoboda, leader of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, had spoken at a Labour mass meeting last February. Last week, he spoke out fiercely against the sale of Maltese citizenship, saying that it goes completely against fundamental European principles.
The government continues in its attempts at persuading people that it is the Opposition and its ‘agents’ who have persuaded the world, its press, the European Union and the European Parliament – and even the leader of the Socialist Group to which Labour MEPs belong in that parliament, who last week spoke out strongly against it – that the sale of Maltese citizenship/EU passport is a bad thing.
Despite these wondrous, Harry Potter powers, the only people the Opposition and its ‘agents’ haven’t managed to persuade – presumably because they have such terrific backbone, resistance and intelligence – are the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (yesterday they issued a press release telling us that it’s “time to move on”), Joe Bannister of the Malta Financial Services Authority, Kenneth Farrugia of Finance Malta, and David Curmi of the Malta Chamber of Commerce. Oh, and Sandro Chetcuti of the Malta Developers Association, who is keen to sell more flats for Eur350,000.
Enough with this childishness.
Boiled down to its essence, what the government is saying here is that while Joseph Muscat has absolutely no influence on the world press, Simon Busuttil controls it, and that a measly (in terms of numbers) two Nationalist MEPs control and influence the entire European parliament, including Hannes Swoboda, the leader of the Socialist Group in which Labour MEPs sit and who actually spoke at a Labour Party mass meeting in the general election campaign last February.
Back then, The Times reported Swoboda as saying during an interview on the Labour Party’s television station:
“Dr Muscat knows what he wants, he knows how European institutions work and he is well-respected. If Joseph Muscat is elected he will have a growing family of social democrats in Europe behind him,” Mr Swoboda said on One TV.
But Swoboda last week spoke fiercely against the sale of Maltese passports, saying that it flies in the face of fundamental European principles, reducing freedom of movement in the EU to a matter of hard cash.
Those who have the cash can buy their way in even if they have no links or ties to Europe, he said, while countless numbers of people who have been living and working in Europe for years, and their children who have been born in Europe, but who don’t have European citizenship, must work hard to get that citizenship, pass many tests, and even then might not.
Swoboda is quite clear on the matter that it is not Maltese passports which are being sold, but citizenship of an EU member state and freedom of movement in the EU.
In other words, Malta is selling something that does not belong to Malta, and in doing so, is creating a two-tier system: those who can buy their EU citizenship for cash and those who can’t.
Now here’s Marlene Mizzi, continuing with the propaganda on Facebook:
Marlene Mizzi
Off to Strasbourg. Looking forward to an interesting week!!
Not looking forward to the SAD SPECTACLE of witnessing Malta being vilified and embarrassed in the European Parliament by the Maltese PN MEPs !
Come on, Marlene. Even you are better than this. You can’t possibly believe that the combined army of David Casa and Roberta Metsola used their magical powers on the leader of YOUR parliamentary group, but were unable to use them on you because you are far smarter than he is.
Let us please tackle the arguments themselves. Those arguments are what they are, and they remain to be tackled regardless of who ‘vilified’ who and what.
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At least she said looking forward ‘to’ rather than ‘for’. But it was all downhill from there.
How can these people, and the comment-board goats such as Privitera, expect to be taken seriously when ranting on about how the PN MEPs should toe the Labour line, in matters that are clearly to the detriment of their home nation, just because they’re all Maltese at the end of the day?
It is just so bizarre.
@Marlene – even I thought you were better than this.
We have already witnessed Malta being embarrassed by your “Wot de hack” and “in Malta we do not have people of calibre” buffoons.
You truly know no depths.
Marlene, “wake up and smell the coffeeee.”
Labour’s tactics of divide and rule and calling the opposition “xewwiexa” never changed.
Joseph Muscat has betrayed the trust shown in him by European leaders, especially the ones who took the risk to back him during the electoral campaign. If he betrayed them, what is the chance that he will betray the Maltese electorate?
It is clear that Muscat knew precisely the details of the EU Citizenship for Sale scam before the elections, but he did not disclose any of that to Swoboda or Hollande.
“It is clear that Muscat knew precisely the details of the EU Citizenship for Sale scam before the elections, but he did not disclose any of that to Swoboda or Hollande.”
It is also clear that whatever respects he has paid to world leaders has anything but genuine. He kissed the hand of the Pope (not exactly right by protocol under the circumstances, mind you) knowing well enough that he would be ready to fan the flames of racism at home and let hundreds of migrants die in a heartbeat.
It’s obvious all he sees in foreign leaders is a chance to gain legitimacy and publicity.
As of now, Malta is the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister is Malta. It works for North Korea, why not for us?
Don’t you just hate it when a political party from a rock most of the world has never heard of actually manages to control the world media, diplomatic services of enormous countries, politicians and world leaders the world over, including names such as Obama, Merkel and Cameron?
The PN should be ashamed for its world controlling ability. They should run a course at the University on Malta for other political parties around the world. I have a name for it:
‘Masters in Controlling the World’s Media, Political Leaders, Public Discourse and the World Economy from an Outcrop of Rock’.
“Boiled down to its essence, what the government is saying here is that while Joseph Muscat has absolutely no influence on the world press, Simon Busuttil controls it,…”
Logical! Kemm jifilhu jaqghu ghac-cajt.
When Marlene Mizzi is at the European Parliament, the first thing she has to do, is to count the MEPs and get the number right.
Dear Marlene, some advice….instead of posting ‘Il-q*h*a milli jkollha ttik ‘ comments on fb, it’s better to concentrate on your aspirations to outdo Sharon Stone in her Basic Instinct scene. And by the way, how’s Pussy….. your cat I mean? L-aqwa l-gravy, mhux hekk?
Daphne, I have to confess that I am at the point where I feel I may actually be asleep and that all of this is just a comical dream.
Is it possible that ‘these people’ are so ignorant that they cannot see the blatantly obvious? They literally have no idea what happens in world politics, nor do they have any idea how this affects diplomatic relations.
Mizzi, the ‘SAD SPECTACLE’ is hardly the 2 (out of 750 unless you didn’t know that) professional MEP’s we have. It is actually clueless people like yourself on a shopping spree in Brussels for all the world to see which is sad. If people previously suspected the Maltese were a bunch of badly-spoken Arab fishermen, now they have proof of it with you and your fellow MEP’s from the PL.
Inthom minn wara l-muntanji Mizzi. Ifhimha.
I give it to Marlene… it is the first sentence I see from her that has less exclamation marks than words.
In quite timely fashion, even as “far away” as Brussels, there are those who will have now recognised that Joseph Muscat has just as much political allure and legitimate long-term tenure within European Socialism as a sinking ship to its rats.
I am still waiting for the day the European Socialists and Democrats actually evict the PL from its EP political grouping. They are tarnishing the Left and are misusing the word ‘Labour’.
What with the proliferation of xenobic comments; the fact that hundreds of people were left to drown; appointments of PL hardliners and the flooding of the public service, the formation of an oligarchy; the rampant euroscepticism; the anti-americanism and anti-semitism of certain Maltese language newspapers aligned with the PL; the traditional ties with Gaddafi; the use of some fantastical links with the Phoenician world etc. the PL is not at all a party of the Left. It cannot claim to be Internationalist as most Leftist parties are. It is insular and is a party of the Far-Right.
Now the European Socialists and Democrats should act lest they undermine their Fraction in the EP.
Yes, Marlene, we all look forward to listening to the defenders of the IIP make fools of themselves as Scicluna did last month.
But then who will carry the political responsibility for the mess? Casa and Metsola? Simon Busuttil?
January 15th: the coffee is brewing.