I’m surprised Frank Portelli hasn’t sailed out to welcome this boat

The Nationalist Party leadership contender, Frank Portelli, 73, has been relentless in his racist and Islamophobic comments on Facebook and elsewhere.

His latest? “Malta latrina” – Malta is being turned into a lavatory by immigrants. The last time I read those exact words, they were in The New York Times some years ago, a direct quotation from Martin Degiorgio of a now defunct Maltese fascist group, in a story about African immigration to Malta.

So I’m surprised that Dr Portelli has not dressed up as a Knight Templar or Crusader (his favourites; just ask him) and sailed out to meet this boatful of racists.

A 73-year-old racist Islamophobe homophobe who is being chased by Malta’s largest bank for the €12 million euros which he owes it – now wouldn’t he make the most wonderful Opposition leader?

But if you say so, he’ll accuse you of ‘attacking his family’ and – wait for it – “child abuse”. I have tried to work out what Dr Portelli – who fits the exact psychiatric profile of Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando – means by “child abuse”, and the only sane conclusion I can reach is that his 16-year-old son – the ‘child’ in question – found out from this website that his father owes HSBC Bank €12 million, because his father will not have told him himself and like all 16-year-olds and almost everyone else he does not read the Government Gazette.

And do you know what the maddest thing is about this situation? No newspaper or journalist thinks it right and proper, in the public interest, to point out that Frank Portelli has failed to pay HSBC Bank the €12 million he owes it, as a result of which the bank has got a court ruling and is now seeking to collect. But those same newspapers, which failed to report this crucial information, think it newsworthy to report Dr Portelli’s crazed accusations against me on Facebook.

Is Malta’s compromised and inept press the result of Maltese society, or is Maltese society shaped by its compromised and inept press?

Some people really need to get a grip on themselves before it’s too late. Stop treating Frank Portelli’s whacked and whacko Facebook posts like Donald Trump’s tweets, because the thing to remember here is that Mr Trump was elected.

If a septuagenarian racist who can’t string a coherent sentence together in writing and who tries to hide his financial messes can be elected President of the United States, then a septuagenarian racist who can’t string a coherent sentence together in writing and who tries to hide his financial messes can be elected leader of the Opposition in Malta.

If you think you can live with it, or that people like Dr Portelli are there to provide amusement with their crazy Facebook posts, I have just one comment to make to you: good luck with that.