It would not do, I think, to build hopes on just the huge crowd that turned up on Sunday for the PN protest.

The crowd, filling Republic Street from the very top, was indeed something to see.

At the same time, however, there were at least two other mass manifestations, both religious in nature - the Ta' Giezu cross held to be miraculous exhibited in Ghajnsielem's main square and the Tal-Grazzja penitential procession held on the first Sunday of Lent in Zabbar.

Plus a number of sports events.

At election time the numbers would escalate as people take sides.

We are not there yet.

People were persuaded to join the protest by among other things the anger at the theft of drugs from inside the army base.

Since Sunday more and more details have come to public knowledge about this heist.

We have been told the Commissioner of Police was given and gave us wrong figures for the drugs that were stolen.

But the bulk of the stolen drugs remain not found.

We learned details about the heist - it lasted two hours. The thieves acted in complete freedom throughout.

The incinerator that was being used broke down and was not repaired in eight months.

The soldiers on guard never saw anything; nor the soldier who was supposed to watch the safety cameras feed.

As I write, the head of the army is still suspended and there are two inquiries on. Let's see now if the retired judge proposes a thorough shake-up of the armed forces.

With Malta agreeing in Brussels to increase defence spending it would be criminal if anybody were to allow such lax controls in the armed forces.

Then of course there was the anger bubbling up regarding the way the Speaker is running parliament, siding consistently with the majority and even more consistently against the minority when his duties would be exactly the opposite. He denies it but he would, wouldn't he?

PN must make life much harder for Anglu Farrugia. Much harder. It owes it to those who sacrificed their Sunday afternoon. This week for example there was a good and fiery speech by Mark Anthony Sammut which went completely unreported on the PN media, as far as I know. And he himself does not seem to have a portal with at least his speeches, strange for an engineer/politician.

The Speaker has the numbers, he might think, backing him up. But the protestors have the anger of the righteous on their side.

Just before the votes Finance Minister Clive Caruana said Malta was doing very well financially, even better than was foretold.

Then he weakened his statement by saying the other countries had agreed to let Malta off the hook when all EU member states have agreed to increase defence spending - it's the constitutional neutrality, you see.

I disagree. How else will Malta join the coalition that is protesting against Russia's invasion of the Ukraine? Staying neutral is for moral cowards. It's about time someone organised a march in favour of the beleaguered Ukraine.

It's shameful that even the Ukrainians in Malta are keeping silent at this betrayal by Trump.

It's even more shameful that we Maltese seem more anxious to join the coalition of the weak and call it constitutional neutrality than to defend a European country just like ours. We might find ourselves needing others to defend us and finding none.

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