The president exists for one reason only: to represent the state
The announcement of the canonisation ceremony, last September
The entire raison d’etre of the head of state is to represent the state. In any diary conflict, the duty to represent the state must take priority over anything else, including delivering speeches at meetings.
These is the official list of the President’s engagements for this morning:
9am The President delivers an opening speech during a meeting for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) delegates at San Anton Palace, Attard.
10.30am The President receives HSBC Malta chief executive officer Mark Watkinson and chairman Sonny Portelli on a courtesy call at the Palace, Valletta.
But there was no diary conflict. There can’t have been, because Sunday’s canonisation ceremony at the Vatican was announced last September and the permanent staff at the presidential office would have noted it down. In fact, President Coleiro’s official list of engagements last week had her attending the canonisation ceremony.
Aside from the fact that her story about not finding flights back in time is an obvious lie – ordinary people used the evening Air Malta flight and she also has a private plane at her disposal – her prioritising is all wrong.
The head of state exists only to represent Malta, and so the head of state must not renege on the duty to represent Malta at a state occasion (and a Vatican ceremony is a STATE occasion not merely a religious one, because the distinction is made between the Vatican state and the Catholic Church) simply so as to deliver a speech the following morning to a UNHCR meeting.
What was her primary duty – to represent Malta at a state occasion in the Vatican with other heads of state from all over the world, or to read out a speech to UNHCR officials in Malta?
The former, of course – and the fact that President Coleiro doesn’t understand it is not a surprise but confirmation of what a disaster she is going to be.
Whatever impression George Abela might have given to the contrary, heads of state are not there to organise charity fun runs, raise money, open kitchen gardens or sell oranges. They’re there to represent Malta at an official level, with dignity and correctness.
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The question’s still unanswered: why did she cancel the trip?
You mean who felt it better to dent relations with the Vatican?
She must have had a number of very valid reasons. This just popped up on Facebook today: http://i.imgur.com/bAroMUd.jpg
hear hear..
She said she did not like ceremonies, but she had a ceremony of six hours for her installation as a President.
How long did the ceremony to canonise two popes take: three hours?
Might I add, ciccio, that the ceremony was unique in that four popes were involved, two being canonised, one leading the ceremony and celebrating mass and one retired. And it still only took three hours.
Nor to do missionary work in Peru, nor to divert very significant funds to a project in which the daughter-in-law’s sister is involved or to pay for flights through the Community Chest Fund for that same woman, nor to fix a marble plaque at Buskett Castle to commemorate the baptism of his grandson …
The Peru missionary work is actually rather insulting to the state of Peru. It’s just like saying, in the most condescending way possible, that their situation is so desperate, that even our Head of State had to give a hand.
“The former, of course – and the fact that President Coleiro doesn’t understand it is not a surprise but confirmation of what a disaster she is going to be.”
.. of what a disaster she is.
_________
How can Joseph Muscat say that his wife was representing him when she went and introduced herself as Mrs Farrugia?
That’s another lie. Within a lie.
Where do they begin and where do they end?
That’s her cover at the Vatican blown.
The Opposition should NEVER have approved her nomination. This kind of mess was inevitable.
Eh, halli ngibu lura dawk is-36 000, siehbi.
Sigh.
Jekk Alla jrid ingibuhom u mela le.
Fis- sena 2028 ingibuhom kif gibnihom qabel.
U mela le ‘k’Alla jrid.
Wara li Malta titkisser ingibuhom.
Deja vu.
U s-Sewwa jirbah zgur.
U jien Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.
Installing an uncouth individual as head of state does not remove the uncouthness.
In retrospect, President Coleiro could have had a very personal reason to cancel the trip. This is pretty obvious but irrelevant in the circumstances.
In that case, she should have said so.
She should have then delegated someone else to represent her and Malta.
Il-giddieb ghomru qasir.
What if the vatican cancelled the trip? The original invitation would have been for a former President with a very different personal background relative to the Catholic doctrine.
Well, there were quite a few dignitaries present who wouldn’t have been there if that were the case.
Besides, the Vatican state invited the President of Malta, a post currently occupied by Coleiro Preca, not Coleiro Preca herself.
How many countries in the world have a head of state who gave birth out of wedlock?
Daphne, when Marie Louise Coleiro was nominated for the presidency you predicted that she was going to be the worst President so far.
That same prediction is becoming a reality less than a month from assuming role of President.
This whole affair is one big PR mess which really embarrasses the whole nation.
Pardon my ignorance, but don’t we have a vice-President too? Why did Dolores Cristina not go? Or what is the role of a vice-President?
This and the “Mrs Farrugia” debacle are symptomatic of this legislation. Improvise and make it up as you go along.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-04-29/news/it-would-have-beenfitting-to-see-coleiro-preca-attend-canonisation-mgr-scicluna-4789108737/
I like this guy.
‘…it was a pity the President could not make it since I am sure that many Maltese Catholics would have loved to see the President represent them during Sunday’s historic occasion…’
He doesn’t specify whether she actually does.
Muscat meantime, sent Michelle ‘in her role as prime minister’s wife, as happens in other countries’.
Qishom gallinar.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-04-29/news/popes-canonisationpresident-government-work-in-mysterious-ways-4789469184/
Glad to see someone else has come out and said how protocol should work, that Farrugia only represented Parliament and that Michelle does not even have a role (thankfully the Vatican diplomatic corps seated her accordingly).
If Muscat really believes that Nelson Mandela is a beacon of freedom and that it was worth attending his funeral, then he should believe the same about Pope John Paul II, who led to the collapse of communist states and to the democratic opening of Eastern Europe, and should have attended his canonisation.
Are we seeing the start of a Presidential stance against the formal church? First by our president not using St. John’s co-cathedral, and now her not attending the canonisation at the Vatican.We are heading to the 1980’s at a faster pace than I expected.
The signs are all there. It’s uncanny how Labour align themselves in an instant to the dominant ideology.
If it was the Gemahariya, APSO and the DPRK, now it’s China.