Love, Rage And Memes: Malta Reacts To Joseph Muscat’s ‘Psychopathic’ National Resignation Announcement Last Night
Resignation has been the word of the week for thousands of people around Malta, but as Prime Minister Joseph Muscat took to a special national broadcast on Sunday night to announce the date he’d be stepping down, people weren’t all too happy.
Rather than the immediate resignation many were calling for, Muscat announced that this would instead be happening next year as part of “a short process of just over a month”, with a new Labour Party leader being chosen by Sunday the 12th of January 2020.
“The moment a new leader is chosen for the Labour Party, I will then resign as leader and hand over to the chosen person and then in the following days I will resign as Prime Minister for us to have a new Prime Minister,” Muscat told the country on Sunday night via a brief broadcast on TVM.
But what happened next (apart from the 8pm news and X Factor Malta’s second Six Chair Challenge) was a barrage of online reactions… and the ones that rang the loudest were clearly not satisfied.
Before the announcement even started, the surreal barrage of mini nature documentary clips was for many a sign of things to come…
… and that’s not even mentioning the surreal and overly dramatic National Anthem cover that kicked off and ended the broadcast.
By the time the speech started, though, it was clear that while some people were lapping it all up, others weren’t so easily swayed
But of course, this is 2019 after all… and reactions quickly turned into memes.
Bis-Serjeta's Kim Jong meme wasn't even the only one either...
What if the whole country just woke up and realised it was all a dystopian simulation?
The Politics Banter definitely needs to become a real thing, y'all.
Prison *and* forka. Someone just took Maltese puns to a whole new level
I mean, Moneybags Muscat has got a nice ring to it...
That small red dot in the centre there is when he actually used the word "resign"
For a more visual representation of it all, trust one of Malta’s most popular artists and satirists to come in and not hold back
Image by Seb Tanti Burlo'
And one of Malta’s most divisive songwriters? Oh, he went in alright.
Of course, many others took to social media following Muscat’s speech to thank him for everything…
… including a number of high-ranking government figures (and former Minister Konrad Mizzi).
Gratitude towards the exiting Prime Minister also came from Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation Silvio Schembri, who only had one word for Joseph Muscat.
Well, sort of one word.
What did you make of last night’s announcement by Joseph Muscat?
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