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UPDATED: Poignant Tribute To Daphne Caruana Galizia In Naxxar Square Ordered To Be Removed Within Hours

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A tribute to Daphne Caruana Galizia which appeared earlier today in the Naxxar pjazza in the form of a street art installation has already been planned for removal. 

About three hours after the Naxxar Local Council Facebook page shared photos of the tribute, mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami explained in a separate Facebook post that the street art would be removed “due to the controversy which was caused.”

The tribute, which was actually Naxxar’s last of a coloured benches project, came on a national day of mourning, after the funeral for the slain journalist earlier today.

The artist behind it, Désirée Azzopardi, shared photos of her work, which she called a “tribute to a great citizen”. The street art installation portrays a couple of green leaves (no doubt a reference to the bay leaves from Caruana Galizia’s garden which made it to the pizzas delivered to protestors outside Castille), along with a couple of other white leaves pouring onto the pavement.

Three of these carried different phrases on them; “The Ultimate Sacrifice”, “For Freedom”, and “For Malta”. 

“This is not a political post, far from it,” the artist told Lovin Malta. “I did it with the approval of the mayor of the Naxxar Local Council”.

According to the artist, however, “it unfortunately might not be there for long from the reactions of people”. Within just over three hours, she was proven right.

At around 7pm, the Naxxar mayor put up a Facebook post explaining the reasoning behind her giving the go-ahead to Azzopardi, and her eventual decision to pull the plug on the tribute.

“As a mayor, I always want everyone to contribute to our town and that’s what I did by allowing this Naxxar artist to express herself with this drawing.

Due to the controversy it caused, however, I have given the instructions for the words to be removed. My aim is to always have unity in our town. After all, charity begins from home”.

Some people applauded the mayor’s decision, while others expressed their confusion at people’s inability to “rise up from partisan politics”.

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What do you make of this tribute, and the eventual decision?

Let us know in the comments below.

READ NEXT: Daphne Caruana Galizia’s Sons Leave Heartwarming Message To Castille Protestors

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).

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