Watch: I Could Sense A Zelenskyy ‘Ħasla’ Was Coming, PN MP Says, Criticising Abela For ‘Only Offering Him Prayers’
Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg has criticised Prime Minister Robert Abela and Speaker Anġlu Farrugia for their approach to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent address to Malta’s Parliament.
On NET TV last Sunday, Buttigieg said that when Farrugia described the Ukraine war as a “conflict”, she immediately took note of Zelenskyy’s body language.
“When the Speaker said those words, I could see Zelenskyy taking notes and one can tell when someone is writing things down angrily,” she recounted. “I turned to [fellow MP] Beppe Fenech Adami and told him that a ħasla (a dressing-down) was coming.”
Arguing that the government intended to use Zelenskyy as a PR stunt, Buttigieg criticised Prime Minister Robert Abela for not offering the Ukrainian President anything tangible during his address.
@lovinmaltaofficial Do you agree with Buttigieg? 🤔 #fyp #fypmalta #malta #lovinmalta #parliament #zelenskyy #ukraine #pn #pl #speaker #address ♬ original sound – Lovin Malta
“His speech had lots of empty words and he kept going around in circles, but in concrete terms, the only thing he told Zelenskyy is that he will pray for him. Prayers are all well and good but that’s not the point – the least he could have done is suspend the sale-of-citizenship scheme on the grounds that someone may have slipped through the cracks.”
“When Zelenskyy delivered his speech, we realised that he knows way more about us than we know about Ukraine and the situation there.”
Malta suspended its citizenship scheme for Russian and Belarussian nationals in the wake of the Ukraine invasion and stripped a particular Russian national of Maltese citizenship, but Zelenskyy has urged the government to prevent Russians from using “golden passports” to begin with.
He also urged the nation to ban Malta-flagged vessels from transporting Russian oil and seize Maltese assets of Russian nationals who are using the jurisdiction to “hide”.
Buttigieg said that the government should have been better prepared before facing Zelenskyy.
“He had already given the Israeli Parliament a dressing-down. Did we assume that because we’re a small country, he was just going to thank us for our prayers? The PL government has been completely exposed as playing to the gallery.”
In contrast, she argued that the Ukrainian president responded positively to Opposition Leader Bernard Grech’s speech and said the PN “emerged with flying colours” from the occasion.
“When Bernard Grech mentioned [European Parliament President] Roberta Metsola, Zelenskyy started nodding and smiling instead of taking notes on how to respond and looking beyond the camera. When someone looks away from the camera it’s a sign that someone was giving him advice that what was being said was unacceptable.”
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