Helena Dalli was on national TV whining and moaning because she wasn’t made President. On the day the country was, for once, sighing its relief that its political leaders managed to rise above the petty bickering and agree on something, Dalli was haranguing them for overlooking her for the post.
If any evidence were needed of her utter unfitness for the role, Helena Dalli provided it in truckloads - on national TV on the very day of the inauguration of our new President.
Instead of lauding the country’s political leaders for overcoming differences and agreeing on a nominee, Dalli lambasted them for being “very unfair” - to her. That takes real narcissistic ego-centricity - not attributes desirable in the head of state - confirming the wisdom of rejecting her for the post.
Dalli couldn’t stop kvetching, couldn’t contain her pettiness and self-centredness, couldn’t hide her staggering sense of entitlement, couldn’t conceal her utter lack of insight into how ridiculous she is. Her sense of self-importance was nauseating.
As the country relished a rare national event of unity, Dalli kept bringing up her own grudge. She kept insisting “this conversation is not over because there was a small nucleus of people within the PN who excluded certain people for very unfair reasons and reasons that aren’t right”. For the self-absorbed Dalli, “certain people” referred to her.
She couldn’t control her tongue. She kept digging herself deeper into a hole and making a fool of herself. “This conversation needs to continue because accusations have been made about some people that they have blood on their hands because they were in cabinet in a certain period in Malta’s history,” she persisted, “these are things we still need to talk about”.
Only Helena Dalli wants to talk about the reasons why she was dumped - nobody else does. If she were slightly smarter, she’d realise she’s doing her cause no favours by nagging on about how she’d been wronged by that nasty nucleus in the PN.
In the mist of her rage she ploughed on with one gaffe after another. “There was a lot of talk that was unjust about serious people, people who gave their life for the country,” she blundered. Was she referring to Daphne Caruana Galizia who actually gave her life for her efforts to protect the country from Labour’s corruption? The progressive feminist Helena Dalli never uttered a word to condemn Labour’s misogynistic persecution of the journalist. Her own son Luke together with Glenn Bedingfield depicted Caruana Galizia as a witch spewing lies on their programme Tanatnejn. Did she tell her own son off for his despicable harassment of the journalist? Did she ever condemn her son’s co-host Bedingfield for his relentless harassment of the journalist? Of course not.
It was only when she faced her grilling for the European Commissioner post did Helena Dalli suddenly find her voice, referring to Caruana Galizia’s assassination as “femicide”. When she was challenged about her government’s handling of the Panama papers scandal Dalli exclaimed “I would have done things totally different (sic)”. She’d never expressed those views back in Malta. She never displayed any objection to Muscat’s devious protection of his two closest allies - Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi. Instead she voted in parliament to protect both of them and to shield her Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
Helena Dalli wasn’t referring to Daphne Caruana Galizia. She was referring to herself. She must have realised the reference to those “who gave their life” was inappropriate. She quickly corrected herself - “those who gave all their time to the country, politics and the people”. But it was too late.
The Caruana Galizia inquiry concluded that “the Board cannot but place the collective responsibility on members of cabinet who failed to take the necessary action….no member of cabinet can exonerate themselves from the duty to assert their will that those involved (in the Panama Papers and 17-Black scandal) had no place in cabinet”. The Inquiry Board condemned those cabinet members for “continuing to give their support through votes of confidence in parliament to the persons implicated”.
Dalli was one of them. She too bears that heavy responsibility for the assassination of Caruana Galizia by helping “to create the atmosphere of impunity… that led to the collapse of the rule of law”. Yet Helena Dalli has no insight, no regrets and no contrition. Quite the contrary, she’s outraged for not being made Head of State.
We’ve already had another member of that cabinet who failed to accept his responsibility for the assassination and clung on as Head of State. We don’t need another.
Instead of humbly accepting that responsibility and fading silently into oblivion, Helena Dalli made the most outrageous claims on national TV. “At the beginning I was the one who invited the Venice Commission when we were designing the equality law. That was the first involvement of the Venice Commission in Malta,” she claimed.
Helena Dalli was either lying or has absolutely no clue. Was she not aware that another President of the Republic, Ugo Mifsud Bonnici was appointed to the Venice Commission in 2002? Chief Justice Joseph Said Pullicino addressed the Venice Commission in 1997 with regards to the relations between the constitutional court and the supreme court from Malta’s perspective. In 1995, 1997, 2000 the Commission produced reports relating to Malta. In 2011 the Commission issued a report highlighting Malta’s failure to allow its overseas nationals the opportunity to vote abroad.
But Helena Dalli wants us to believe that the Venice Commission only became “involved in Malta” when she brought them over. That’s almost as bad as Alfred Sant believing Mintoff took us into Europe. Helena Dalli also probably believes the world revolves around her. When reality finally catches up with her, expect to see her back on TVM insisting that she is still the centre of the world and that “this conversation is not over”.