Engerer even said that he met multiple people, especially young ones, who asked how it was possible that there wasn’t a single person within the party with a different opinion.

“‘How could they all think the same about something so wrong?’, they told me. ‘How come no one represented my thoughts?’, I often heard.”

“The closed way politics is conducted in our country is frustrating many. Trust in politics is being lost due to the outdated and disconnected reality with which the major parties operate. Today, people see how politics is done in other countries. Today we are Europeans, and we have visibility into how other parliaments operate, even our second parliament – the European Parliament, where the freedom of the mandate is sacrosanct for every member.”

The vocal MEP went on to say that he sent a letter to the government against the exclusion of those who think differently, not just about the case of Jean Paul Sofia but about other topics too, emphasising that the party should not stifle critical thought and varying opinions.

“From what I could tell, letters aren’t often sent from someone in a group to the rest of the group.”

In his social media post, Engerer went on to refer to a speech he gave yesterday in the European Parliament about the rule of law, where he lambasted the attempts to criminalise critical thinking in some EU member states.

“Pushing an opinion you believe in is important (while being open to being convinced otherwise if you are wrong); voting for what you believe in is commendable, even if it goes against the current; speaking up when things are not going right is essential – after all, this was the conclusion of the inquiry into the various entities that failed to speak up – this same failure should not persist in our politics and political parties in our country.”

The party had voted unanimously against a public inquiry into the incident but Prime Minister Robert Abela quickly U-turned following immense public pressure. PL MP Malcolm Paul Agius Galea has since admitted he made a mistake when he toed the party line.

Yesterday, the inquiry report carried out by Judge Emeritus Joseph Zammit McKeon, Auditor General Charles Deguara, and architect Mario Cassar was published, concluding that the 20-year-old’s death was caused by an unregulated construction industry and stating that the government should shoulder responsibility.

Do you think that the Maltese government quells critical thought within its own party?