Janice Bartolo should bear in mind that she is now a PEP

I watched the Justice Minister’s girlfriend making a scene at the Opposition leader’s press conference at Parliament House yesterday (see previous post) and couldn’t believe her shameless stupidity and the equally shameless idiocy of her boyfriend the cabinet minister, who doesn’t seem to understand that women – or for that matter, men – who become involved in a formal relationship with a cabinet minister have a changed status and cannot simply carry on as they were.

It is astonishing that these things have to be explained: when you are sleeping with a minister of the government, whether as his/her wife/husband or his/her girlfriend/boyfriend, you do not pick up a microphone and go to press conferences and challenge members of the Opposition, let alone the Opposition leader. If you love your job as an employee of the Labour Party, or with a proper newsroom, so much, then cover different subjects and go to different press conferences. If you don’t, you will be compromised and the cabinet minister will look ridiculous.

But there is another point that should be made here. Janice Bartolo does not seem to have woken up to the fact that, under Maltese and European law, she is now a politically exposed person (PEP) by virtue of the fact that she is the official consort of a government minister. She is therefore subject to heightened scrutiny by the press, banks, and the financial authorities.

I don’t think that’s quite occurred to her yet.

As the official consort of a minister of the government of a European Union member state, Janice Bartolo is a politically exposed person under Maltese and European law, and is therefore subject to heightened scrutiny by the press, banks and the financial authorities.