Office of the Prime Minister: Neville Gafa acting in personal capacity, but we don’t mind

Gafa, a die-hard Labour supporter and Joseph Muscat apologist, has recently been in the news following his return to the Labour government as a customer care coordinator at the Office of the Prime Minister

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Updated with OPM spokesperson replies

The Office of the Prime Minister has distanced itself from Neville Gafa’s removal of flowers from Daphne Caruana Galizia’s memorial on the eighth anniversary since her murder.

But the OPM has also defended Gafa’s actions, saying “freedom of expression applies to all.”

“Mr Gafa acted in his personal capacity. He has consistently clarified, including in public statements, that his actions, namely the removal of flowers and candles from the Great Siege Monument, were not intended as a gesture against the memory of the late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, but rather as an objection to the use of a national monument for purposes he considers unrelated to its historical significance,” a spokesperson said.

But an OPM spokesperson also compared Gafa’s action to that of NGO Repubblika.

“Repubblika, on the other hand, holds the view that the Great Siege Monument should continue to serve as a symbolic memorial to Mrs Caruana Galizia, and its members regularly place flowers and candles there as an expression of that belief,” the spokesperson said. “In a democratic society, freedom of expression applies to all.”

Questions on whether Gafa’s actions are acceptable to Prime Minister Robert Abela, and whether disciplinary action will be taken against him, remain unanswered.

Earlier, a number of foreign embassies have condemned Neville Gafa’s removal of flowers from Daphne Caruana Galizia’s memorial on the eighth anniversary since her murder.

In separate posts on Facebook, the Dutch, German, and Irish embassies in Malta condemned Gafa’s actions.

“Vandals can destroy our flowers, but they cannot destroy our support for keeping Daphne’s memory alive,” the Dutch embassy wrote, with the Irish embassy similarly describing the act as “petty vandalism.”

The embassies’ comments are rare, as they often avoid commenting on local issues.

NGO Occupy Justice said that on Friday morning, "a small man with a hugely inflated idea of his own importance," posted a video claiming that the monument was cleared, noting that the video was not taken on the day, accusing Gafa of lying to his own people.

The NGO questioned whether Prime Minister Robert Abela is comfortable with one of his employees attacking a murdered journalist.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Maltese Journalists (IGM) said that the stunt is an attempt to disgrace Caruana Galizia's memory.

"We understand that some may still struggle with the legacy of Daphne Caruana Galizia, but as is demanded by democracy, let us respect each other’s ways of remembering the journalist who was killed so brutally by insidious powers."

Dismiss Neville Gafa, Momentum tells PM

In reaction, Momentum called for Neville Gafa’s dismissal, saying an act is a a blatant show of disrespect toward the memory of a murdered journalist and an alarming display of intolerance by someone entrusted with public office.

“It represents a deliberate attempt to erase public remembrance and silence civic expression,” Cassola said. “Such conduct has no place in a democratic state. Allowing public officials to desecrate tributes to a slain journalist undermines both the dignity of our institutions and Malta’s international reputation.”

Who is Neville Gafa?

Gafa, a die-hard Labour supporter and Joseph Muscat apologist, has recently been in the news following his return to the Labour government as a customer care coordinator at the Office of the Prime Minister under Parliamentary Secretary Andy Ellul.

Gafa was formerly in charge of OPM customer care under Joseph Muscat. In Libya, he helped broker an agreement to relay coordinates of migrant boats from the Armed Forces of Malta to the Libyan coastguard.

There, Gafa nurtured contacts with sanctioned militia leaders like Libyan warlord Haithem Tajouri, and once faced accusations that he had extorted cash from Libyans to issue them with visas for medical care.

Gafa also writes a blog, where he presents himself a fervent Putin apologist, and like his Russian hero, calls Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a Nazi. He also questions Labour’s progressive drive, such as government’s recent removal of references to gender in certain laws.

Gafa also recently hit out at the women's section of the PL for criticising Ian Borg's decision to nominate Donald Trump, another hero of Gafa's, for the Nobel Peace Prize.

On the eighth anniversary of Caruana Galizia's murder, Gafa used his blog to "remember who Daphne Caruana Galizia was," describing her as a tax evader among other things, while also having the face to say that her son Matthew Caruana Galizia should ask for an apology on behalf of his murdered mother.

Karl Azzopardi is Online Editor and an IGM press awards (Human Stories) winner of 2019

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Matthew Farrugia is a journalist at MaltaToday He was the joint-winner (2025) as upcoming...

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