The Occupy Justice movement has lashed out at Opposition Leader, saying that the group’s relationship with Adrian Delia is “non-existent.”

On Thursday, speaking on TVM’s Xtra, Delia said he had a “good relationship” with the group, saying that their criticism did not prevent him from communicating with the people involved.

“Both men have, in the eyes of all the women of #occupyjustice, failed to uphold justice and good governance, and both sit back, at times even taking ‘smiley’ selfies together, all this while Malta is rotting in corruption,” the activists said.

 “#occupyjustice was born on the day that the Opposition Leader chose to carry on with the Budget discussions in parliament, instead of walking out in defiance when the government refused to debate the motion on the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

 The least any citizen of Malta would have expected of a strong Opposition would have, in fact, been to walk out, and only return when the motion was to be debated. It was at that point that we realised that neither the government nor the Opposition were going to defend us, the women and men in the street - for them it was simply a case of business as usual.” 

“For this reason, as a group of activists led by women, we are united by one factor. We have had enough of a political system that allows politicians and those in authority to act with impunity.

Case in point, as citizens of Malta, if we failed, repeatedly, to show up at a court hearing, we would be found in contempt of court and duly punished, but it seems that those in realms of power are treated differently. 

They are accountable to us and they should start behaving in a manner that would honour our Constitution, not make a mockery out of it. They are meant to serve us. We want to live in a fair and equitable society where our institutions function properly without favour.”

The group said that, contrary to government “spin”, it has no leader, no PR person, and none of its members are involved in partisan politics.  

“We all have families and we all work. We are well aware of the risks we are taking. In an attempt to intimidate us, members of #occupyjustice have been identified, isolated and attempts at humiliating us have been made. All this to silence us. Yet we soldier on because we believe that if we sat home in silence, our society will keep on decaying until it is too late to save it. This is our nation, this is our home and we are the people.  We deserve better, we expect better, we demand better.”