“I can’t possibly talk about my district without remembering Paulina,” Portelli Bonnici said as she began revisiting the issues that people face within the areas of Sliema and St Julians.

“I grew up going to Independence Gardens, that’s where my parents used to take me when I was young. And that was a safe place,” she said. 

“When I was older I used to go there with friends, we used to get beers after going to Junior College and we’d just drink there, and swim there,” she recounted.

“I still spend my summers there – well, I used to, before what happened this year,” she said.

“I found it very hard to go back now, and I know that there are a lot of women my age that are feeling that feeling – that we are no longer safe in taxis, we’re no longer safe in public parks, in the daylight, and these are things which need to be tackled and are long overdue,” she said.

She also made reference to some of the Nationalist Party’s pledges with regards to increasing safety and surveillance.

She also said that a lot of people are now avoiding the gardens as a result of the negativity that the place holds after the tragic event.

“The negativity will only start to go away after we start providing solutions to these issues,” she stressed.

What do you make of Portelli Bonnici’s interview?