Nickie Vella De Fremeaux calls out ‘friends’ who excluded son because of politics

Nickie Vella De Fremeaux has renewed the spotlight on school bullying of children because of politics in a lengthy and emotional Facebook post.

Her focus was her young boy, who has ostensibly been excluded from friends’ parties since his father, Adrian Delia, became involved in politics.

“Dedicated to those parents once deemed our friends, as were our sons, who regularly slept over, but who suddenly, due to pathetic politics based on blinkered political ideas, which bigotry was categorically directed at my son, who is regularly excluded from parties,” De Fremeaux wrote, in screaming capital letters.

She went on to describe the heartbreak of her son who kept waiting till the last day for the invite from his best friend that never turned up.

Part of the post Nickie Vella De Fremeaux posted on Facebook

“I ask all parents and guardians to imagine how you would feel if your young son excitedly hopes and waits till the last day for the invitation to be handed over to him in class and yet no invitation is in the pipeline. Imagine having your son crying and begging you to call the party boy’s mother because in his mind the invitation must have got misplaced - after all it was his own best friend who invited him - so not being invited was inconceivable,” she continued.

READ MORE: Children's Commissioner insists bullying can 'never be justified'

De Fremeaux gave an indication of who these parents are in a reply to one of the numerous posts of solidarity on her wall.

She confirmed that these parents are the same people who “light candles and put flowers in Valletta” - a clear reference to activists who hold monthly vigils in the capital to remember slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

“I know they are, but I will never get myself to say that all those people who form part of this group, who feel so strongly about what it is they desire, are heartless and reckless,” she responded to a question.

But De Fremeaux said the manner in which her son was excluded was meant to exact the “maximum amount of damage”.

“I always wonder with a knot in my throat how evil and calculating people can be, particularly when some of these parents were some of our closest ‘friends’, who despite knowing both the kids and us so well, were nonetheless capable of viciously and vindictively - truthfully intending to harm his father in a perverse way - willingly ridiculing, lashing out at his security and humiliating our son, causing him to distance himself from his friends,” she wrote.

This is the second time in the space of a couple of weeks that the wife of a politician has publicly vented frustration over the treatment of her children at the hands of schoolchildren.

Last week, Michelle Muscat lamented how the school where her children attended failed to protect her daughters from bullying peers, in the wake of the Egrant allegations.

READ MORE: ‘The school did nothing to protect my children’ – Michelle Muscat on Egrant fall-out

She also described how her daughters were ostracised from class parties as a result of the poisoned political atmosphere.

De Fremeaux’s children attend the same private school as that of the Muscats.