“None of you voted for a corrupt nation,” the journalist representative of Fondazione Falcone Alessandro De Lisi said during a vigil to mark the sixth anniversary since the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

He said that in Palermo, nobody wanted the mafia to take control and the people eventually took the city back.

De Lisi, who was one of nine speakers at the vigil, said that six years after the murder of Caruana Galizia Malta has not done enough, adding that the country needs “to seek not only justice but also the truth.”

He said that only the truth of a corruption-free economy can be respected and built upon progressively “otherwise it is just speculation.”

Referring to Germany and the Holocaust as an example, he said that as a country it has recognised the pain and suffering which the Holocaust brought, learnt from it and built a progressive future for the next generation.

De Lisi said that there is no place for agreements with the Mafia and that every European country needs to recognise this.

He accused Malta of being in national debt with all of Europe due the death of Caruana Galizia as the still has more to do.

Repubblika President Robert Aqulina meanwhile said that there is “nearly nobody left in Malta who does not recognise that our country is riddled with corruption.”

Addressing the crowd, he said that for years there were attempts to silence Daphne Caruana Galizia as there were those who didn’t want her to continue with her revelations, and like the campaign against her, “over the past six years they conducted a campaign against us, the people of goodwill here in this square who are determined to continue Daphne’s work.”

“As they tried to censor Daphne, they are still trying to censor us,” he said.

Referring to the recent situation where he was interrogated by the police, he said it seems this happened as the press conference in front of PBS “annoyed PBS Chairman Mark Sammut quite a bit”.

“This is the same Chairman under whose leadership, our voice was completely censored from all the programmes that are broadcast on the national stations ... the stations that are supposed to belong to all the people,” he said.

He said that Sammut was one of the protagonists in the driving test scandal. This is in reference to a report by the Times of Malta which says that Sammut had texted “several candidates' names and ID card numbers across a three-year span,” to one of the three people charged in court over the scandal.

Aquilina said that instead of taking Sammut to the depot, “the Hamrun Police Station sent for me because I held a press conference, which I had every right to do”.

“You are not going to silence us,” he told Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa and Sammut.

Aquilina also made reference to his testimony in the case instituted by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in court, where Muscat is seeking the recusal of the magistrate who is leading the inquiry into the controversial deal to sell three public hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare, due to posts made by her family members.

Aquilina said, when Muscat’s lawyer turned to him whilst on the witness stand to list the suspicions the NGO has on Muscat: “believe me, I had a lot of fun with that question.” Aquilina said he went on to list what he believes Muscat should be investigated for.

Aquilina said that when he finished, Muscat ran out of the court room.

“Muscat is in a panic because he knows that there will soon be justice. He knows we will not stop before there is full justice,” Aquilina said.

He told the people present that he wants to encourage them to, “like me, believe that the moment when we begin tasting justice will soon arrive.”

Aquilina said that there is a new majority, “that knows and recognises that we, and Daphne before us, always told the truth. The winds are changing.”

He said that there is corruption everywhere. As a result of this corruption, those who are most in need are suffering, he added.

Among other things, he mentioned the disability benefits racket, saying “money that was meant to go to people with severe disability was stolen,” also alleging that it was done to buy votes.

‘Behind that pen stronger than a sword, there was a woman and mother who had a big heart’

Former FIAU investigator Jonathan Ferris also addressed the vigil.  Ferris was sacked by the FIAU in what an industrial tribunal some weeks ago deemed to be an illegal dismissal.

Addressing the vigil, Ferris said that he had attended every vigil on the 16th of every month out of a sense of duty and respect towards “a woman and journalist who while I had never met physically, I had gotten to know from her writing.”

He said that Daphne was the first person who found him on 30 June 2017 when news of his unjust and illegal sacking from the FIAU emerged, and that she had then kept up contact with him almost every week – with the last time being a few days before she was killed.

Ferris said that she had always asked him how he was, how he was feeling and whether he was working, and never asked for anything back.

“It is from there that I realised and learnt that behind her blog posts, behind that pen stronger than a sword, there was a woman and mother who had a big heart and knew to feel for those going through tough times,” he said.

He said that six years have now passed since her murder, and that while nobody can change the past, what counts is what to do with that past.

“Even when they offend you, insult you, try to humiliate you, lie about you: do not stoop down to their level, and keep going,” Ferris said, reflecting on his own personal experiences.

“The war isn’t won in one battle, but with a lot of small battles, and that is what is happening. We cannot give up, the road is long but I am convinced we will get there,” he concluded.

‘Fighting for what you believe is right is stronger than any false accusations and threats’

Karolina Farska – an activist from Slovakia who organised protests after journalist Jan Kuciak was murdered – described how she was born ten years after the Velvet Revolution and the end of the Cold War, into a country of a former eastern bloc which started to slowly but surely create its own way in the Western world.

“I was 18 years old when I started to organize anticorruption marches in Slovakia, 19 when Jan Kuciak was murdered and we founded an initiative For a Decent Slovakia. There were people in the streets in the whole country, in some towns the numbers were even higher than during the revolution.”

“Our prime minister kept saying that the protests were organized by a young girl from her kid’s room with money from her money box, ‘as anybody should believe that’. He called us foreign agents paid by George Soros, we were interrogated by the criminal agency because of suspicion of committing treason. Very desperately he wanted to spread fear and distrust, because he knew how dangerous it was for his retention of power and that goes for every egocentric power maniac who tries to behave as a honourable politician but instead doesn’t care about anybody but themselves,” she said.

However, she added that “fighting for what you believe is right is stronger than any false accusations, any threats.”

“I know that and I know that you know that, you are proving it right now. Daphne knew that more than anybody and it didn’t make her stop,” she told those gathered.

Addressing those who were not supporting the vigil, Farska called on them not to be fooled.

“It’s not people in the streets calling for justice who should stop. Don’t forget that there are real enemies and they are corruption, lies, conspiracies, hatred and all those who spread them. This is your country, don’t let it be stolen by those, who don’t care about you, who are betraying you,” she said.

“Malta belongs to Maltese people, not to oligarchs or corrupted elites and politicians. To be able to make decisions about yourself and your country is a privilege which had to be fought for. Don’t ever forget that, democracy is not a happy end, it requires hard work, continuous work which never stops,” she concluded.

Speakers during the vigil were also Ethan, an 11-year-old boy who won a competition by Repubblika where he wrote a letter addressing the late journalist, Chiara De Gaetano who represented Libera, Tom Gibson representing the Committee to Protect Journalists, independent journalist Christoph Schwaiger and activist Clemence Dujardin.