Three separate embassies issued rare public statements of condemnation. And it wasn't the standard diplomatic language they used. They expressed heartfelt outrage and disgust at the deplorable actions of one man - Neville Gafa.
"We are appalled," the Embassy of the Netherlands commented, adding: "Vandals can destroy our flowers, but they cannot destroy our support for keeping Daphne's memory alive. When you kill a journalist you do not kill their stories!"
Gafa isn't your average eccentric. He was comfortably installed at the Office of the Prime Minister as a customer care coordinator. Despite his notorious past, Robert Abela saw fit to appoint Gafa in his own office. Yet at 3am in the morning Gafa was busy destroying flowers that the Netherlands embassy had placed at the Great Siege monument as a tribute to the murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. It was the eighth anniversary of her assassination.
It wasn't just the Dutch embassy flowers that Gafa destroyed. He cleared the tributes left by the Irish and German embassies and the British High Commission and dumped them in nearby bins. Gafa was caught red-handed, recorded by a hidden camera. He came back destroying flowers, removing candles and messages left in memory of the slain journalist.
The diplomatic corps were not impressed. In a sharp dig at Gafa and the Labour party he represents and the OPM he worked for, the Irish Embassy commented "How do you measure impact? Is it when your work continues to upset those who do not care for truth and courage?"
"Flowers are disposable but legacies are not", read the sharp statement. "Ireland's permanent memorial to Daphne Caruana Galizia and others like her is in Dublin's Iveagh Gardens", the Irish pointed out. The Maltese state, which was held responsible for her murder, hasn't bothered to erect a memorial for the journalist but Ireland has. Diplomats from around Europe paid their respects to the journalist on the 8th anniversary of her murder, but Robert Abela didn't even mention her.
Abela's party station, ONE, mocked Opposition Leader Alex Borg for attending the vigil in honour of the journalist. That was the only reference to the heinous murder on Labour's station.
Germany's embassy was even more direct: "Just like you can kill the journalist but not the story, you can kill our flowers, but not our support for keeping Daphne's memory alive". It's quite clear who is "killing our flowers". It's Neville Gafa.
That Gafa can stoop to such depths is no surprise. He not only offensively disparages the murdered journalist but vilified her deceased mother, a polite and discrete private person catapulted into the limelight simply through the dignity with which she bore her grief. But Gafa also called for Owen Bonnici's resignation. He attacked Nisa Laburisti executive secretary Jennifer Tabone.
Everybody with a drop of humanity and decency is appalled at Gafa's actions. Those statements from the different embassies, usually reticent to comment about most things, are testament to the outrage and disgust Gafa elicits. But what's even more appalling, more disgusting is that Robert Abela and his parliamentary secretary Andy Ellul kept defending Gafa and justifying his actions.
The clearing of the monument has been declared by the courts to breach the human rights of activists. That ruling made headlines around the world. Yet Abela defended those very same actions claiming Gafa's right to express himself.
Since when does the right to free expression include the right to destroy other people's property? Since when does freedom of expression include the stifling of other people's right to expression? Abela's cynical defence suggests that anybody can decide to rip up all the propagandistic billboards that his government keeps erecting around the country telling us how great his government is. Abela is giving every citizen the right to clear Labour's posters, tear them up and dump them in the nearest bin.
Abela argued that in the same way that activists have a right to place flowers at the monument, Gafa has the right to destroy them.
Abela's spokesperson claimed that Gafa isn't clearing the Ambassador's flowers to Daphne's memory out of contempt for the journalist but rather out of his deep sense of civic pride. He's doing it, Abela claimed, because of his objection "to the use of a national monument for purposes he considers unrelated to its historical significance". The OPM was simply echoing Gafa's dumb excuses - "the Great Siege Monument," he commented, "deserves the utmost respect and protection".
If Gafa loves the monument so much why then did he put his own placards, newspaper cuttings and posters disparaging the journalist at that monument? Every fool knows that Gafa's actions aren't driven by his sense of civic duty. Robert Abela knows exactly why his chosen customer care official keeps embarrassing the country even with our foreign diplomats.
Robert Abela's office had the gall to comment that Gafa's actions are "not intended as a gesture against the memory of the late journalist". Who does Robert Abela think he's fooling? Certainly not the ambassadors of our European allies.
Gafa's vile actions are despicable enough, but not half as despicable as the Prime minister's decisions. Abela gave Gafa a state-funded position at the OPM and continued to defend him even at the cost of harming the country and his party. Robert Abela set out to deepen the deep divides in an already fractured nation - with every move and by every measure he succeeded. In the process he also managed to open a chasm within his own party. Only when Gafa attacked the parents of LGBTIQ+ children was Abela finally compelled to let him go. But the damage had been done.
Everybody warned Abela against bringing Gafa back. Everybody knew it would end in disaster. But obstinate as ever, Abela ignored them. Not even the ire of several ambassadors or the resignation of Nisa Laburisti's executive secretary changed Abela's mind. And Gafa kept upping the ante.
Gafa only lasted two months at OPM. That's an indictment, not of Gafa, but of Robert Abela's appalling judgement. The Labour party should be cutting its losses - with every twisted decision Abela takes, he drags the party and the country down.