Five reasons yesterday’s protest matters

Yesterday’s protest in Valletta was significant for reasons that go beyond the numbers gathered in the streets.

It demonstrated that, nine years after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the demand for justice can still mobilise thousands without the organisational backing of a political party. But more significant than the turnout was the composition of the crowd.

1. A remarkably diverse crowd

There were people of different generations and from very different strands of civil society: left-wing activists from Moviment Graffitti, veteran environmentalists and civil society campaigners with long-standing non-partisan credentials, mainstream student organisations and people associated with the centre-right and the Nationalist Party.

The crowd was predominantly middle class and upper middle class. But there was also a notable presence of people in their 30s and 40s, an age when many people tend to retreat from activism into family and professional life.

This was also far removed from the image of an increasingly ageing and embattled Daphne movement which became particularly visible during some of its more difficult years.

In that sense, the acquittal of Yorgen Fenech may have had the unintended effect of restarting some of the civic energy unleashed in December 2019

The 2019 protests were driven largely by anger. Yesterday's gathering appeared more strategically focused: different groups united around a defined set of demands.

And there were people in the crowd who, only a few years ago, would have been highly unlikely to stand on the same platform or street demonstration. Some had been openly hostile to Daphne and to the movement around her.

That is politically and socially significant.

2. A civic platform capable of crossing political divides

The movement is developing a potentially powerful common platform: justice for Daphne's family; immediate implementation of the recommendations of the public inquiry; laws targeting criminal conspiracies of a mafia nature; and greater regulation of the relationship between powerful businessmen and politicians.

These demands can bring together people who would normally occupy very different political spaces.

They can appeal to anti-capitalist activists such as Graffitti, but also to business owners and professionals who believe they have been cheated by a system in which political connections and access to power matter too much.

Such an alliance is inevitably full of contradictions and potential double standards. But alliances are often born of necessity.

What appears to be emerging is a civic umbrella capable of pushing for political change without itself becoming a political party.

Its most important contribution could be the creation of a political space in which critical thinking is valued and politicians are treated as representatives rather than objects of reverence.

3. The remarkable transformation of Emmanuel Delia

I was somewhat disappointed that the speakers did not reflect the breadth and diversity of the crowd that cheered them.

That is understandable. After nine years of struggle, Repubblika and Occupy Justice have earned the right to call the shots within the movement. 

But one could hardly miss the remarkable transformation represented by Emmanuel Delia.

It is an unlikely journey: from a state bureaucrat associated with the Nationalist Party establishment to one of the more prominent voices of a movement that has spent years challenging Malta's political and business establishment.

Whatever one's view of Delia's past or present role, there was political wisdom in his message yesterday.

He recognised that the movement cannot remain a gathering of the already converted. It must be capable of welcoming people who previously shunned it, including those who once regarded the movement around Daphne with suspicion or outright hostility. His message to the crowd was to embrace anyone who joins them without asking why now and not before.

That was evident in his refusal to frame the protest simply as another battle between Labour and the PN.

Delia urged people to engage with whichever party they support, writing directly to their district MPs, Prime Minister Robert Abela and Opposition Leader Alex Borg, demanding accountability and anti-mafia reforms.

He also referred to MaltaToday's report about shock inside Castille following Yorgen Fenech's acquittal. Rather than simply lashing out at Abela, he called on the prime minister to turn that reported shock into concrete political action.

This is strategically important because one of the movement's enduring weaknesses has been the perception that it is primarily a permanent anti-Labour crusade.

That perception still motivates part of its base. But it also alienates people who might otherwise share its concerns.

Emmanuel Delia's intervention suggested an awareness that this needs to change.

The proof, however, will be in the pudding. Reaching out cannot simply mean inviting Labour voters into a movement whose political language remains largely shaped by people who have spent years opposing Labour.

It requires a genuine discursive shift, and that shift needs to be personified by people capable of speaking credibly to those with a Labour tradition. That voice is still largely missing.

4. ‘Aħna ċittadini, MHUX dixxipli’

Perhaps the most politically potent phrase of the evening was Delia's: “Aħna ċittadini, MHUX dixxipli [we are citizens, not disciples].”  But on a deeper level the message was best conveyed by Daphne’s nieces Amy and Megan Mallia, who urged the public to cultivate independence of mind: "Think for yourselves, use your critical judgment, and do not accept a culture where truth is twisted."  This message cuts to the heart of what could make this movement consequential.

The message is not simply that Labour is corrupt or that the PN is hypocritical. It is that citizens should refuse blind loyalty to politicians, whichever colour they wear.

That message could prove particularly uncomfortable for the PN as it seeks to reconnect with a more traditional electorate, including people accustomed to networks of patronage and political favours. 

But its significance goes beyond partisan calculations.

The movement could become a catalyst for a generation whose political baptism came during the 2019 protests, only to be interrupted by the isolation of COVID-19.

They are now returning to public life with the benefit of hindsight. They grew up under the shadow of Labour's corruption scandals and the building boom, while simultaneously experiencing a Malta that has become more liberal, diverse and socially progressive.

They are a generation that matters.

Even if they remain a minority on the streets, their presence is a powerful symbol of a changing political culture — and one which makes an establishment that has dominated since 2013 appear increasingly disconnected from some of the social changes unleashed during those years.

5. Labour's reaction reveals its own dilemma

The reaction on social media from some personalities associated with Labour was strikingly incoherent and contrarian.

Much of it appeared to be driven by antipathy towards the people taking to the streets rather than engagement with the substance of their demands: justice for Daphne's family, implementation of the public inquiry recommendations and action against criminal networks and political-business collusion.

There is also an important contradiction.

Some of those attacking the protesters have themselves questioned aspects of the state's prosecution case — including the contention that Daphne was killed because of what she was investigating concerning 17 Black and Electrogas, rather than simply because of her gossip columns.

Personal attacks on people supporting the protest risk reproducing the same dynamic that some of Daphne's more abrasive writing once created: pushing away people who might otherwise have been receptive to her central concerns.

Among yesterday's crowd were people who in 2013 believed that Labour represented a new political hope.

Labour still has the possibility of engaging with this emerging civic movement and responding with new progressive ideas.

But doing so from the seats of power is always more difficult. Still there are welcoming signs.

At the Council of Europe, Labour politician Naomi Cachia acknowledged Daphne Caruana Galizia's profound impact. She warned that society must avoid complacency and failure, urging continuous efforts towards institutional reforms, media freedom, and justice for the assassinated journalist.

Super bonuses may help win elections. They cannot, however, make the underlying contradictions disappear.

And yesterday's crowd suggested that an increasingly large part of the country is beginning to realise that some of those chickens are now coming home to roost.