Monday night’s vigil for Jean Paul Sofia was a strong show of national unity. People from all sectors and all sides of the local political spectrum supported it in the lead-up to the event.

Labourite or Nationalist, it didn’t seem to matter.

The Nationalist Party, former President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, The General Workers’ Union, the UHM-Voice of the Workers, social media personalities and many others were all united. It was a show of unity rarely seen in this country.

The Prime Minister, ahead of the vigil, finally gave in to pressure after months of going against calls for a public inquiry, and announced one. He also continued to exert pressure on the magisterial inquiry to conclude. “I was informed some minutes ago that the magistrate and her experts have not heard the testimonies of Jean Paul Sofia’s family yet. This is a situation which, to me, is not acceptable anymore,” Abela said at the press conference. He said that he still believes that the best tool to achieve justice is the magisterial inquiry and the proceedings that follow, but the people are now expecting answers, and rightly so. “I understand them. They want peace of mind and everyone who was at fault or contributed to this tragedy must pay the price for their behaviour,” he said. “That is why as Prime Minister, a Maltese and a father, I am no longer comfortable with this delay,” he added.

 While one must highlight the importance of there being no unnecessary  delays in the magisterial inquiry, one must also point out that magistrates don’t just conduct one inquiry at a time, and they also have a lot of other work. Trying to make it look like the decision to launch the public inquiry was due to magisterial delays is, at best, a weak argument by the Prime Minister, who had constantly refused a public inquiry up until that point. It is obvious to all that there was no other choice than to call the inquiry, given the widespread support it was given. He shouldn’t have stood in the way of a public inquiry to begin with.

When Isabelle Bonnici and other members of Sofia’s family walked into Castille square later on Monday, the crowd burst into applause. A mother, a family, who had fought so hard for so long to get a public inquiry, had achieved it. When a poem was read out, when family members spoke, some in the crowd were in tears. It was an emotional moment. Later, candles and mobile phone lights were raised above, and candles were laid on the stairs of Castille.

The vigil was a peaceful gathering, but things got heated after the vigil ended when Prime Minister Robert Abela walked out of the Castille front door while a large crowd was still present. He was jeered as he made his way to his car at the side entrance of Castille, escorted by a small team of security and police officers. It was a tense situation that could have ended up being much worse, but luckily didn’t.

Sofia’s mother had deplored what went down in a Facebook post, and distanced the incident from the vigil.

Now the next step will be for the public inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia to begin. One now expects that full justice for Jean Paul Sofia will be achieved in the future.