Watch: Joe Giglio Says He Can ‘Rise Above’ Friendship With Robert Abela, Who Chose Him As Wedding Witness
Nationalist MP Joe Giglio said he isn’t going to let his personal friendship with Robert Abela hold him back from criticising the Prime Minister when needs be.
Abela had chosen Giglio – who are both lawyers – as his witness for his 2008 wedding with Lydia Abela, a role traditionally reserved for family and very close friends.
However, in a new interview with Lovin Malta, Giglio insisted that his friendship with Abela is “totally irrelevant” and that he won’t let it condition his political role as PN home affairs spokesperson.
“You rise above that. We have roles to play… we rise above these occasions,” Giglio said. “It doesn’t mean that if I am your friend or if you are my friend, then you don’t criticise me if you have to.”
“We might be acquaintances, we might have worked together, but you rise above that. Each and every one of us has the moral fibre to ensure that we rise above these situations.”
Asked whether he is still friends with Abela, Giglio said “of course, we know each other socially just like many other people are our friends” but that it makes no difference whatsoever to his duty as a spokesperson for the Opposition.
“Does it mean we should shy away from criticism, does it mean we should close our eyes if something is not correct?” he questioned. “Does friendship mean that you do not carry out your role as you are duty-bound to do?”
Robert and Lydia Abela exchange wedding vows in 2008
“What has this got to do with it?” Giglio continued. “It has absolutely no connection. Aren’t you friends with people? Does it mean you shy away from criticising them if you have to? Does it mean that if you think your friend is doing something incorrectly, you shut your eyes? I’m sure you won’t do that, and neither would I.”
Giglio hit out at Abela after the Prime Minister described his recent national security proposals – which included the immediate deportation of lawbreaking foreigners – as “sensationalist and populist”.
“It is rather rich for a Prime Minister to come out condemning the PN proposals as populist when the last time he spoke about foreigners sinking in a boat was to tell them that Malta is full up,” he said, before suggesting that Abela is detached from realities on the ground.
“You know what I know as a fact? I think he doesn’t realise the frustrations of each and every one of us, he doesn’t realise the situations we face every day.”
“He has no credibility, with all due respect, to speak about law and order when we have a demotivated police force when LESA officers are going on strike when we had massive problems in prison and there are massive problems in the law courts.”
“We have delays in our law courts and we have outdated systems, so when it comes to law and order and implementing justice, I think Robert Abela’s credibility is equivalent to that of his predecessor [Joseph Muscat].”
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