‘They Chased Me To My Hairdresser’: Roberta Metsola Recounts Random Incident With ONE News
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola recounted a time she was chased to the hairdresser by a media crew from ONE News, detailing how the whole situation actually scared an elderly woman.
“I was literally going about my day, going to dye my hair, I went in during the evening and they chased me there. There was an old woman inside the hair salon, and they scared her,” Metsola said on an episode of Jon Mallia’s first episode of Il-Patruni Jistaqsu.
The hour-long episode featured questions by different patreons of Mallia’s media platform and touched upon several topics, one of which was her approach toward journalists and debating amid this electoral campaign.
“One of the things that many rightfully criticise Robert Abela for is that he always avoids debates and journalists, something that irritates many people who aren’t die-hards,” Joe Scicluna, one of Mallia’s patreons, began.
“In this campaign, it seems that you did the same thing, it seemed like you avoided journalists, it seemed that you avoided debates with other candidates – this is something that I think irritates a lot of people.”
Metsola said that although she loves debates, her role as European Parliament President comes with certain responsibilities that has made this campaign different to the previous four she has contested.
She noted that, as the Parliament’s president, she represents all MEPs and has certain power over them, meaning that she is responsible for any potential disciplinary action against any members of the house.
“No EP president has ever entered into a debate with a candidate that currently has a seat in the parliament or who is part of the staff of the European Union. Believe me, if it were up to me, I wouldn’t want anything more than to look at my colleagues, who have been attacking me daily for months with lies, and tell them what I’m telling you today. But I have a responsibility that is greater than me.”
She went on to address the media aspect of the question, saying that this idea that she doesn’t respond to journalists is simply “not true”.
Metsola explained that the Broadcasting Authority’s directive that urges journalists to report the President of the European Parliament “with caution” does not help her case.
“I’ll give you two examples, there’s a particular station [ONE TV] that follows me every day, three days ago I was entering a conference and I was interviewed for six and a half minutes, I know how long it was because I filmed it too. However, they only published the last 20 seconds of the clip when I said that I had to leave.”
“I’m in a situation where I answer questions but it’s not shown because the BA says not to report about me because of the censor, then there’s that particular station that chases me every day and only posts 20 seconds because they don’t like the answer.”
Metsola concluded by saying that she can give a list of every question she received and responded to.
Watch the full interview here.
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