European Parliament wants to be judge, jury and executioner says Agius Saliba

Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba this morning came out guns blazing ahead of next week’s European Parliament vote on the hotly-disputed resolution on the rule of law in Malta and the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Accusing the European Parliament as wanting to serve as judge, jury and executioner by entertaining such a resolution while court proceedings on the subject matter are ongoing in Malta, Agius Saliba said he appealed to his fellow Socialists and Democrats at a meeting of the group yesterday to not accept such “political games”.

“I explained my position and that of the Maltese government in the clearest possible terms,” Agius Salina said on Friday morning, adding that he “appealed so that together as a group we do not accept such political games, and encouraged them to vote against the resolution next week”.

The resolution, he said, was being pushed through, Agius Saliba said, by “the usual suspects, as I call them, people who have a clear agenda against Malta. Amongst them is [German Greens/EFA MEP} Sven Giegold, who has a fixation against Malta and who is very close to [Nationalist MEPs David Casa and Roberta Metsola.”

Agius Saliba takes exception to the fact that the resolution is being held at this sensitive point in time, in the midst of court proceedings over the murder, and only because, he said, of pressure from Casa, Metsola and European People’s Party secretary general, and former opposition leader, Simon Busuttil.

“It’s a shame that Maltese like us continue to engage in these kind of politics,” Agius Saliba.  Also a shame, according to the MEP, is that “The EP wants to transform itself into a court while our own judicial process is ongoing, as well as police investigations Severn people are facing justice for the murder and it’s like the EP wants to pass its own judgement.

“Parliament needs to practice what it preaches and allow our national institutions to do their work.

Instead, what we have is a three-page resolution on developments on the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and the judicial process, with many of the allegations being nebulous and reliant on the testimony of criminals.

“This is the reality that we as MEPs face on a daily basis, when we are trying to focus on proactive work that will benefit people’s lives.”

He described the resolution as a “political circus” that even enjoyed the backing of extreme-Left Hungarians and Polish, whose own parties’ “hobby” was to violate the rule of law every day.

“No one wants to be with them, and I condemn them as so many other as have. But they feel they need to condemn our government” purely in retaliation to S&D’s stances against their own rule of law issues.

“When you see all these manoeuvres, it’s a shame that Maltese like us are practising these kinds of politics. They use these situations and resolutions to do harm to our country, this is something that I cannot understand.”

Agius Saliba insisted the resolution at hand runs against the grain of the reality of the situation, pointing to how Prime Minister Robert Abela had had an open dialogue with the EP’s Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights Monitoring Group; that the European Commission is applauding the government’s reforms, and that the European Court of Justice “threw out the window” a case against the government instituted by rule of law NGO Repubblika.

“Everyone knows the partisan intentions at play here, the scope is one: to score political points,” Agius Saliba said.