“Now that these individuals have met with the president and described the meeting as ‘very encouraging,’ they will feel even more empowered to continue their hate campaign, rather than face the justice they deserve for harassment and hate speech,” he told Lovin Malta. “It is not known what was discussed in the meeting with the president, but if the president even remotely approves of what this group is doing, this is nothing short of state-sponsored harassment.”

Expressing increasing concerns for their safety, the activist describes the group as a “dangerous echo chamber of ever-escalating rhetoric – the type that can get a pro-choice activist killed”.

“People need to realise that a line has been crossed, hopefully before its too late.”

The group is co-administered by Alleanza Bidla leader Ivan Grech Mintoff, as pictured in attendance, with other participants like Matthew Grech from River of Love as well as Tancred Manfre, the latter whom the activist says “regularly writes lengthy hate posts targeting individual pro-choice activists”, having recently called for them to be “aborted”.

A number of Manfre’s posts have been removed in breach of Facebook’s community standards and several reports have also been filed with the Cybercrime Unit.

Read the full letter below:

I am writing to you as a concerned pro-choice activist to bring to your attention the fact that President George Vella has recently met with the administrators of the militant “Abortion in Malta? Not in My Name” Facebook group. Furthermore, it appears the president has allowed these administrators to publicly announce that this meeting happened by posting a group picture of the president, the first lady, and the administrators on the Facebook group. This Facebook group is a dangerous echo chamber of ever-escalating rhetoric – the type that can get a pro-choice activist killed. This rhetoric, at times clearly encouraging violence and murder, is promoted by the administrators of this group. For example, Tancred Manfre, who is also pictured in the group photo with the president, regularly writes lengthy hate posts targeting individual pro-choice activists on the Facebook group, and invites extreme hate comments from other members of this group. He also recently called for pro-choice activists to be “aborted”, in other words murdered. A number of his posts were taken down by Facebook because they were found in breach of Facebook’s (already lax) community standards. A number of reports have also been made about them to the Cybercrime Unit. Now that these individuals have met with the president and described the meeting as “very encouraging,” they will feel even more empowered to continue their hate campaign, rather than face the justice they deserve for harassment and hate speech. It is not known what was discussed in the meeting with the president, but if the president even remotely approves of what this group is doing, this is nothing short of state-sponsored harassment. There is a growing feeling of unease amongst pro-choice activists and a fear that such implicit state approval of extremist anti-abortion groups will soon lead to a tragedy.