In a judicial protest filed yesterday, Dr Bezzina and Mr Zammit said that on 28 May, the archbishop and the bishop made a statement on the EP election that threatened democracy and favoured the PN.

The Church officials said that people should vote for those candidates who abide by the Christian values and are against the legalisation of abortion and divorce. Dr Bezzina and Mr Zammit claimed this message shows the people the Catholic Church in Malta sympathises with the PN.

In the protest, they said the archbishop and the bishop used religion to take advantage of believers’ votes.

The Curia and the PN work solely for their interest, Dr Bezzina and Mr Zammit continued in the protest.

The protest said not long ago the bishops formally refused to have anything to do with the EU membership negotiations, but soon changed their tune once they saw Malta was definitely going to become an EU member. “They started to express an interest to manipulate our little community once again,” the protest claimed.

The protest was also filed against the Election Commissioner, Ron Evers, of the Malta EP information office, Pat Cox, EP president, President of Malta Edward Fenech Adami, the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner. It advised these entities to suspend the EP election, if needs be, so the voting public will not be pressured by their conscience, due to the autocratic and dictatorial statements made by the two Church officials.