Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1104601
24 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 APRIL 2019 OPINION Raphael Vassallo What can empty chairs do about freedom of expression? FUNNY things seem to happen to people who get elected to the European Parliament. Right now, for instance, there's a plenary debate on 'Brexit' being streamed live from Strasbourg on the EP website. People on my newsfeed are already shar- ing snippets of it – especially a speech by a British MEP who 'took Nigel Farage to the clean- ers' – almost as if to hold this debate up as a sterling example of 'European democracy in action'. Yet when I followed the debate online, what struck me most was the overwhelm- ing preponderance of empty seats. By my count, there were maybe 25 MEPs present in the entire House – out of a total of 750 – and most of them were Eurosceptics (including Nigel Farage, naturally: who distin- guished himself from most of his detractors by actually show- ing up for the discussion). This was especially evident by the 'applause' that greeted the aforementioned speech's conclusion. It was almost like a chorus of crickets chirping in the background: you could literally count the perfunctory, unenthusiastic claps on the fingers of one hand. Where was everyone else, I wonder? This is, after all, the same European Parliament that talks about 'Brexit' as if it were the end of the entire cosmos as we know it. Yet give them an opportunity to discuss it in the European Union's equivalent of a democratic, legislative assem- bly… and suddenly, around 95% of them discover that 'having a Cappuccino at Place Luxem- bourg' is a good deal higher on their personal list of priorities. Then they all scratch their heads in bewilderment, when they suddenly realise that the detested Eurosceptics are mak- ing gargantuan inroads across the length and breadth of Eu- rope… while their own support is dwindling by the second. And yeah, it sort of confuses me, too. Who would have ever guessed, that a bunch of dedicated politi- cians who are committed to their cause – enough to actually be there, representing their constituents, when it is dis- cussed in Parliament – would prove more popular among voters than a bunch of lazy good-for-nothings who never seem to show up when they are needed most? I don't know: must be one of those things we are all destined to die without ever fully under- standing… And by now you might even be thinking… ah, but hang on a second. This could easily just have been a one-off. Maybe the EP is bursting at the seams on all other occasions; but this once, there was something else on at the same time… some- thing earth-shattering enough to eclipse even an EP debate about the one issue that cur- rently threatens to tear the EU apart. Like… um… a football match on TV, perhaps? Or maybe a Pixies reunion concert at the Botanique… (Heck, I myself would choose a Pixies concert over a debate with Nigel Farage any day of the week… but then again, I'm not paid a handsome salary, courtesy of the European taxpayer, to discuss important matters in the European Parlia- ment, now am I?) Meanwhile, even a cursory glance at any other streamed EP debate (regardless of subject) will reveal more or less the same pattern. Recently, for instance, the European Par- liament held a debate about Malta's 'rule of law' situation. The debate itself was sparked by a visit to Malta's by the EP's 'rule of law commission', and it ended with a vote on a report drawn up by the same entity. This time, the roll-call did not add up to more than 15 MEPs. All six of Malta's representa- tives were there, naturally – af- ter all, they're probably the only ones who still take that institu- tion even remotely seriously – and then, literally a handful of other people… scattered across the chamber haphazardly, like they had just landed there after falling off the back of a truck. So, when Miriam Dalli locked horns with Ana Gomes… and everyone in Malta got excited about it, like they were about to enter a mud-wrestling arena… well, to all other purposes they may as well have been having an idle chat in the lift. No one was listening. No one was even there to take note of the indi- vidual arguments, before voting on the issue under discussion. Strangely, however, when it came to the actual vote a couple of days later… suddenly, all 750 MEPs turned up en masse. It was a full house. And the over- whelming majority of those 750 voted in favour of the report… without having listened to any of the arguments or counter- arguments; and very evidently without even bothering to check how much of this report was even true. How many of those MEPs took their vote on the basis of Ana Gomes' claim that 'the per- sons behind Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder have not been identified or arrested'? Were they even aware that three arrests were made within two months of the murder; that all three suspects are on trial as we speak; that a mountain of evi- dence has so far been presented in court, and that all of this evidence points in the di- Yet give them an opportunity to discuss it in the EU's equivalent of a democratic, legislative assembly… and suddenly, around 95% of them discover that 'having a Cappuccino at Place Luxembourg' is a good deal higher on their personal list of priorities The overwhelming preponderance of empty seats...