[WATCH] Salvu Mallia lambasts ‘ignorance’ of public at one-man Castille protest

Salvu Mallia claims 'ignorance is the problem with Malta'

Outspoken PN candidate Salvu Mallia engaged in a public argument with Labour supporters as he staged a one-man protest against government corruption outside Castille.

Mallia stood outside Castille with his dog by his side, holding a placard bearing a message to EU delegates who are in Malta as part of the country’s ongoing presidency: “Dear EU delegates, your presence in my country is being used by the government to give respectability to a corrupt regime”.

While he was speaking to the media, Mallia was interrupted by a group of elderly Labour supporters who took the PN candidate to task for his colourful vocabulary and vocal atheism.

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” one of them shouted. “You dragged the PN to a record low level,” another of them said.

One of the supporters refused Mallia’s request for a handshake, as “I don’t want to dirty my hands by shaking yours”.

Mallia later told the media that the presence of the Labour supporters only proved to prove his point that there is a problem of ignorance in Malta.

“There is a lack of education in Malta, people don’t know how to think critically,” he said. “I’m sure that the people didn’t even bother to read my sign and question the logic behind it, but just followed whatever One and Glenn Bedingfield told them.”

He added that he is calling people out for their ignorance for their own good, arguing that the first step to curing a sickness is acknowledging its existence.

“Many Maltese in the street tell me that there’s too much ignorance in this country, but some people don’t want to admit it. Of course it’s not nice to be told you have a sickness, but I’m not telling calling them ignorant because I hate him but for their own good.”

Mallia had earlier admitted that he dropped out of school at Form 3 and “is proud of it” because “I continued to take an interest in everything after leaving school and have spent my lifetime studying life”.

Few people could be seen approaching Salvu Mallia to sow their support, but the PN candidate bullishly claimed that the low public interest in his protest betrayed the problem of indifference in Malta.

Maltese people are completely disinterested in Malta and have no love for their country Salvu Mallia

“People will probably try to mock me because nobody attended the protest, but my interest wasn’t to attract crowds. Some people are scared to show their faces, but there is also a huge problem of indifference in Malta. We haven’t got rid of our colonial mentality, and when people steal money from the public purse, we don’t realize that they are stealing our own money and not the Queen’s.

“The fact that no one came to the protest is proof of how right I am because it means that Maltese people are completely disinterested in Malta and have no love for their country. They say things like ‘Malta First and Foremost’ and about how proud they are to be Maltese, but when it comes to the crunch they run behind the PN and PL flags.”

He later compared Malta to a patient who has suffered from a heart attack, and himself to a doctor armed with a defibrillator.

“I call a spade a spade…and an asshole an asshole’

Questioned by MaltaToday, Salvu Mallia defended the vulgar language he has used against his critics, including a Facebook post in which he branded former PN MP Philip Mifsud as an “asshole”, arguing that he was simply calling a spade a spade.

“He said I was a liability to the party, because I had said that I will vote according to my conscience if I get elected as an MP. What else could I have called him? A fool? Ignorant?

I am a man of the people and the people tend to be vulgar, so I will speak in a vulgar manner Salvu Mallia

“I’m not the sort of person who uses buzzwords…like ‘roadmap’ in the days of Alfred Sant and ‘fake news’ nowadays. I am a man of the people and the people tend to be vulgar, so I will speak in a vulgar manner.

“People who are getting offended because I called him an asshole are as hypocrtical as the Pharisees. We hear such language all the time, from Vittorio Sgarbi, in US politics, in films, and on the street. I mean, come on. I have a right to call someone an asshole if he considers me a liability to the PN because I want to vote with my conscience. He’s an asshole, because he isn’t talking but farting out of his ass.”

‘Great respect for tal-Ajkla…he says what’s on his mind’

At one moment, Salvu Mallia also declared that he has “great respect” for Zaren Bonnici, the leader of the ‘Partit tal-Ajkla’ whose mass meetings attracted crowds ahead of the last election.

“I have great respect for him, because he has the courage to speak on the streets about what is on his mind. The people in the wrong are the hundreds who went to his mass meetings just to make fun of him. They are people tan-nejk who should be ashamed of themselves for going to Mass on Sunday.”

‘Salvu Mallia the PN’s true leader’ – PL

In a tongue-in-cheek statement, the Labour Party said that Salvu Mallia has effectively replaced Simon Busuttil as the PN’s leader.

“The manner in which Mallia is dictating and giving conditions to Busuttil on certain policies and on how the party should be run show that he has now become PN leader,” the PL said.