WATCH | Abela distances himself from Neville Gafa, stops short of condemning multiple statements

In recent weeks, Neville Gafa used his blog to call Ukraine a 'war-hungry Nazi regime.' He also lashed out at Nisa Laburisti’s executive secretary, Jennifer Tabone, calling her 'poison-tongued'

Prime Minister Robert Abela has distanced himself from a number of statements made by Neville Gafa, but stopped short of condemning any of them.

On Wednesday, MaltaToday confronted Abela with a series of statements Gafa made on his blog since becoming a person of trust in Andy Ellul’s parliamentary secretariat.

In recent weeks, Gafa used his blog to call Ukraine a “war-hungry Nazi regime.” He also lashed out at Nisa Laburisti’s executive secretary, Jennifer Tabone, calling her “poison-tongued” after the PL’s women’s section criticised Ian Borg's decision to nominate Donald Trump, another hero of Gafa's, for the Nobel Peace Prize.

On the eighth anniversary of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, Gafa removed flowers from her makeshift memorial in front of the Valletta court building.

The removal brought condemnation from three foreign embassies, and was even blasted in the European Parliament, as Castille distanced itself from Gafa’s actions.

On Wednesday, Abela said that Gafa’s removal of flowers from the memorial was not the OPM’s policy, repeating that Gafa was simply expressing his opinion.

He noted that if there is a clash between Gafa’s freedom of expression and that of the people who tend to the memorial, Abela is not the one to decide on this.

On Gafa’s comments on Ukraine, Aebla stated that he can only speak about his own stance on Ukraine, promising to defend the country’s interests at an upcoming summit.

Here, Abela stressed that he doesn’t believe he can or should censure anyone. 

The Prime Minister was also questioned on how Gafa described Daphne Caruana Galizia as a “witch.”

Once again, Abela stated that he doesn’t agree with the language Gafa used, but refused to condemn the comment, adding that he has a good relationship with the Caruana Galizia family.

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. 

READ ALSO | Trump, Russia, and the war on woke: Inside the weird world of Neville Gafà

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.