With four days to go till the European Parliament election, Partit Demokratiku MEP candidate Camilla Appelgren has suddenly deactivated her Facebook account.

Asked by Lovin Malta why she took this move, Appelgren coyly responded with the last words penned by the late Daphne Caruana Galizia: “There are crooks everywhere you look now, the situation is desperate.”

Appelgren, a Swedish activist known for her regular clean-up activities, deactivated her profile shortly after coming out as pro-choice, arguing that an outright ban won’t prohibit women from travelling overseas to access abortions.

However, she pledged not to campaign for the legalisation of abortion in Malta if elected as an MEP, arguing that it should remain a local topic.

Appelgren said she isn’t backtracking on her stance and said she has 100% support from the PD, whose leader Godfrey Farrugia has called for Malta’s abortion ban to be entrenched into the Constitution and who has proposed medically accelerating births for women with unwanted pregnancies.

However, she said she had to deactivate her profile for “safety reasons”. This could well be a reference to the backlash she received from pro-life people after going public with her pro-choice stance.

“The issue has nothing to do with a specific topic, but with the vile behaviour of people thinking they are untouchables,” she said. “Rest assured that my fight continues. A Facebook page is just a page. Passion can’t be deleted.”

Appelgren has not spent a cent on her campaign and has actually rejected donations, meaning social media was a crucial tool for her to reach potential voters.

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Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]