Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1508267
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 SEPTEMBER 2023 COMMENT The Skinny Malta, shrunk down EDITORIAL The Archbishop's provocation PAGE 2 JOSANNE CASSAR Has 'foreigner' become a derogatory term? PAGE 6 A European conversation about the future would be remiss without addressing the green and digital transformation that we are expecting to go through in the coming years and decades ALEX AGIUS SALIBA | PAGE 6 What are we skinning? The Labour Party CEO Randolph De Battista taking Roberta Metso- la to task for neither attend- ing nor posting about Malta's Europride events, in tandem with his partner and MEP Cyrus Engerer praising PN MPs who showed solidarity to the cause and event while also slamming Malta's partisan status quo. Why are we skinning it? Be- cause taken together, the two statements are a wonderful po- litical hat-trick. Let's unpack this first. Okay, sure. What are you stuck on. So Metsola flat-out refused to attend Europride? As the cur- rent president of the European Parliament, Metsola has an un- derstandably busy schedule at the best of times. And at the worst of times? You'll have to ask her. Though from what we've been led to understand in her office's re- sponses to De Battista's com- plaints in particular, it appears that she was busy with a G7 event in Kyoto and EU plenary sessions in Strasbourg and the UN General Assembly in New York pretty much all through- out September, so it may take a while for her to get back to you just now. Here's hoping Brussels isn't be- sieged by the same murderous humidity we're all currently suffering from, in the country that used to be Metsola's main base of operations. One hopes so, for her sake at least. Still, nothing's stopping her from posting about it. That's true, and this is arguably the only rational point we could latch onto from De Battista's complaints. What is he inferring from Met- sola's actions - or rather, inac- tions - in particular, though? Oh, he's plainly stated that this is all about her wanting to ap- peal to the conservative base of her native PN, so as to benefit her chances at the upcoming EU local elections in June. How solid is that accusation? It has the baseline-logic of a plau- sible accusation, in many ways. But one still begs why such a strategic scrutiny of Metsola's social media use had to be ap- plied. Politics by social media has become the norm, though. Yes, and a politician with an other- wise slick and savvy campaign- ing style as Metsola can hardly claim ignorance of it. Especially when the PN itself is softening its stance towards the LGBTIQ+ community. It's just about the only subject on which that party is willing to eat something that resembles hum- ble pie. And as you said, Cyrus Engerer himself openly praised Clau- dette Buttigieg and Graziella Attard Previ for being allies de- spite their - official or unofficial - historic party line. Though En- gerer's emphatic and valuable slamming of partisanship is un- dermined somewhat by De Bat- tista's zooming in on Metsola's behaviour with all of this. How so? Well, the idea that Met- sola still represents the PN in its 'gentrified' form, and is there- fore worthy of nitpicky attacks, is a standard line employed by Labour hardliners. So very much a partisan move. It would've been refreshing to see partisanship fade out of the political scenario during Euro- Pride. But alas. Do say: "Roberta Metsola cer- tainly shouldn't be spared valid critique when the occasion calls for it, but De Battista's missive feels a bit petty in the grand scheme of things." Don't say: "I want an interac- tive, augmented-reality chart detailing how every single Mal- tese MP reacted to EuroPride on social media. THAT would be a distraction from pretty much everything else during this hu- mid and hellish time." No. 210 - Missing Metsola Pride RAPHAEL VASSALLO Will the EU now impose sanctions on Azerbaijan, too? PAGES 10 - 11 MICHAEL FALZON The gravitas of the presidency PAGE 7