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I refer to the report on Floriana’s coat of arms and other issues in MaltaToday of Sunday, 27 March 2005.
I have always made my arguments clear on the issue of the coat of arms, particularly in the Maltese papers, and none of the historians have ever contradicted my position in favour of the current emblem of the lion along with the sword.
This means that historically I am correct, irrespective of how the other councillors decided to vote in this regard. Facts are facts and could not be contradicted. Whether this vote was a victory for all the Furjanizi remains to be seen.
Regarding the atmosphere of the meeting held on the 22 March, it was evident from the start that the vote on the coat of arms motion was characterised by ‘emotional mobility’ of all sorts and not on facts based on history. Even your reporter noticed this mobility, so much so, that he wrote ‘people suddenly flocked into the local council building’ for the vote.
Notwithstanding this, however, I remained true to my conviction and it was my duty to announce the facts as they exist. This has been my position ever since the beginning. My vote spoke for itself. There was no loss of authority as it had nothing to do with the issue.
I did not bother to explain my position then because it was useless, as reason no longer prevailed. Your correspondent rightly summed it up “the meeting was reaching farcical proportions”. I must, however, make it clear that I never exerted pressure on any councillor. The requested postponement of councillor Hallett shows that he was indecisive on the issue, even before taking the vote.
This means that his vote was taken prematurely.
Referring to the accusation in my regard that I was being ‘inhuman’ for expecting councillors to rush for a vote when they had just returned from abroad, it has to be said that the date of this meeting was fixed a week before, after the councillor involved confirmed that he would be present on that day. This was also confirmed during the meeting with the Executive Secretary of the Council.
As to the reference to my late taking of the oath of office as Mayor, I want to point out that my election took place just before Christmas, and since then, I had made various tentative appointments with a particular Commissioner for Oaths, but for some reason or other, these were all postponed to last week.
Publio Agius
Mayor
Floriana
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