Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1041944
12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 OCTOBER 2018 JAMES DEBONO ATTRACTING hundreds of people to events not sanctioned by any of the two major parties is no mean feat and the fact that more people attend monthly vigils for Caruana Galizia than official PN activities speaks for itself. One should not underes- timate the outrage generated by the murder of a prominent journalist and agenda setter, which turned previously invis- ible normal citizens into activ- ists. But the movement's strength can also be attributed to its at- tachment to the PN faction which remains loyal to former leader Simon Busuttil who de- spite leading his party to a co- lossal defeat in 2017 has man- aged to give thousands of PN voters a battle cry and a sense of purpose. A year after the assassination, movements like Occupy Jus- tice and Kenniesa, have become protagonists in a more frag- mented Opposition. The move- ment which enjoys the blessing of the Caruana Galizia family has also found an astute politi- cal spokesman in Manuel Delia, a former official in Austin Gatt's secretariat and a PN candidate in 2013 who is well learned in the trappings of Maltese poli- tics, who has now reinvented himself as the voice of dissent through a widely read blog. In Daphne Caruana Galizia the movement has also found a martyr and an effective narra- tive summed by the journalist's last blog post "that there are crooks everywhere you look." It is also gelled by antagonism towards Joseph Muscat and his government and the group's militancy is boosted each time Caruana Galizia's memory is tarnished. Ironically the remov- al of flowers from the makeshift shrine on numerous occasions during the past months has served to reinforce the narrative of persecution which keeps the flame of rebellion alive. The limits of the movement But despite attracting hun- dreds of people to its regular ac- tivities, the movement has not managed to reach out beyond a restricted segment in society mainly consisting of people who adored Caruana Galizia and who mainly hail from the upper mid- dle-class and have traditionally voted for the PN. This represents the move- ment's greatest weakness. For although the sense of outrage ANALYSIS Could the 'Daphne crowd' be a party in the making? Well over 3,000 people thronged Valletta for the first year anniversary of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, confirming the strength and staying power of the movement and the murder. Does politics beckon, or is this movement's growth stunted by its limited inf luence?