Junior minister calls for laws to protect politicians from intrusion into sexual lives

Laws should be enacted to safeguard politicians from “uncalled for intrusions” into their private and sexual lives, according to parliamentary secretary for planning Deborah Schembri.

In an opinion piece for the Times, Schembri warned that the “constant breathing down politicians’ necks” over their private lives is discouraging people from running for political office.

“Is it in the public interest what Kama Sutra positions our ministers are capable of contorting into and whom they decide to indulge with in tantric pleasures?” she wrote. “We are all human; we go through life making mistakes and, hopefully, learning from them as we go along. We are not perfect, none of us, politicians or otherwise. We have pasts and we have histories, marriages that went wrong, messy love stories, feelings we shouldn’t have but can’t control. We’re humans, we’re not machines, none of us have spotless private lives, and no future person, politician or otherwise, will either.

“If we keep this up – this constant breathing down politicians’ necks when it comes to private life – no one will be interested in giving their services to their country.

“The time is ripe for this country to enter into a serious discussion about this matter. Laws should be enacted to safeguard politicians from uncalled for intrusions into their private and sexual lives. Much of what is written about politicians is means to catch the attention of the masses or provide for their distraction from important issues, providing fodder for the eight o’clock news. But there’s much at stake, and realizing it quickly and doing something about it is very much in the public interest.”

Schembri was writing in the wake of as-yet unsubstantiated allegations by blogger and Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia that economy minister Chris Cardona had visited a brothel while on government business in Germany. She threw in her own two cents as to why the story has proven so popular or – in her own words – “got the country’s hormone levels up”.

“All it takes…is one blogger backed by a few sordid politicians and fewer still behind-the-scenes movers and shakers frantically clicking away on their laptops and raising hell about an alleged sex scandal.

“Anything sexual throws people into basic-instinct mode: they can relate to it. Some do because, no matter what kind of fuss they make about it, no matter how horrified and in awe they seem when they hear details of sexual bravado or secret sexual encounters, they’ve probably been there and done that and secretly thank whatever god they believe in that they didn’t get caught,” she said. “Others relate to it because they understand that nothing cries ‘human’ like ‘sex’. It’s our reason for being in this blessed world in the first place and some surely think it would be a great way to get out of it too.” 

‘Press should not offer comfort to the political caste’

Front Against Censorship activist Ingram Bondin tore into Schembri’s comments, arguing that public scrutiny into politicians’ private lives may be justifiable because their private lives could impact their judgement on public matters.

“A deliberate confusion is being created between the intrusion in someone’s private life and the fabrication of a story about someone’s private life,” he wrote. “It is my opinion that the press should offer no comfort to this undeserving political caste, especially to one which has made a virtue out of complete unaccountability. Instead it should prepare for a relentless attack on freedom of speech which will undoubtedly contain further restrictions in addition to those being presently mentioned in public.”

.@DeborahSchembri, if a Minister(hypothetically) visits a brothel, pays vulnerable women & lies about it-that's in public's interest to know https://t.co/DgjHrCZiCl

— Roberta Metsola MEP (@RobertaMetsola) February 11, 2017

Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola also criticised Schembri’s call, arguing in a tweet that it is in the public interest to know if a minister visits a brothel, pays vulnerable women and lies about it.  

Meanwhile, PN candidate and radio host David Thake said that Schembri’s opinion piece reveals her true belief that Cardona did actually visit the brothel.

Renowned economist Lino Briguglio also weighed in, arguing that the onus should be on politicians to both behave well and to be seen to behave well.

“I admired Deborah Schembri’s role in the divorce campaign, but, as often happens partisan politics may have led her to take certain stances which are not, to my mind, so admirable,” he said on Facebook.