Watch: New Labour MP Randolph De Battista Leaves Religion Out Of His Swearing-In Ceremony
In a rare move for a Maltese politician, new Labour MP Randolph De Battista opted to leave religion out of his parliamentary swearing-in ceremony last weekend.
During the ceremony, MPs make an oath of allegiance and loyalty to the Republic of Malta and the Constitution and traditionally end their declaration with the phrase “so help me God” as they kiss a crucifix held out by the Speaker.
However, De Battista opted for a declaration rather than an oath, whereby he only pledged his loyalty to Malta and its Constitution.
Speaker Anġlu Farrugia didn’t hold out the crucifix for him.
The new MP’s gesture was acknowledged by Pia Micallef, an equality activist who works in the Brussels office of PL MEP Cyrus Engerer, who is De Battista’s partner.
“Randolph De Battista is the only MP out of 79 MPs to declare his loyalty to Malta’s people instead of taking an oath and kissing the cross,” she said. “Randolph represents!”
De Battista didn’t contest the 2022 election but was co-opted into Parliament after the PL executive called a casual election on the ninth district, where all candidates had already been elected.
Shortly after the election, he was also appointed Labour CEO, a position he had held between 2017 and 2020.
Do you think politicians should kiss the crucifix as they are being sworn in?
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