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‘Here Is Finer!’: Economy Minister Tries (And Fails) To Troll 15-Year-Old Girl After Social Distancing Comment

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What’s worse than a Member of Parliament trying to poke fun at an underage girl? Not much… except maybe him failing.

Economy Minister Silvio Schembri took to Twitter last week to share photos from his trip to Malta Enterprise, where he was snapped alongside Prime Minister Robert Abela and ME CEO Kurt Farrugia among others.

But while the tweet might’ve looked harmless enough, 15-year-old activist Tiziana Aljasem later pointed out that the group hardly looked like they were following proper COVID-19 regulations.

“Social distancing and masks at their finest!” the teenage girl commented some days after the initial post.

So what does Economy Minister Silvio Schembri do?

He posts a photo from nine months ago, showing Tiziana laying candles at the Daphne Caruana Galizia protest site underneath the Great Siege memorial alongside MEP David Casa. So that’s two people next to each other, about four months before the first case of COVID-19 was ever recorded 8,850 kilometres away from Valletta, in Wuhan. Yikes.

Some moments later, Schembri’s retweet – which also came with the self-explanatory “Here is finer!” – disappeared from Twitter.

Twitter quickly had a field day with the troll attempt, with activists and politicians alike roasting Schembri.

“Our Economy Minister can’t even get internet trolling right,” Casa replied, sharing a screenshot of the now-incomplete exchange. “Two things that definitely need some serious social distancing  are you and social media, Silvio Schembri.”

“It’s worse than that, actually,” Daphne’s sister Mandy Mallia continued. “Trolling a minor whilst concurrently mocking her for calling for justice for Dapne Caruana Galizia, and one day after Chris Fearne blocked an Occupy Justice activist on Twitter.”

But Schembri’s reply isn’t the only thing that’s now hard to find; it looks like he also hid Tiziana’s initial comment.

“Why did you hide her reply?” the Justice for Daphne Twitter handle challenged the Economy Minister. “She raised a valid point. Just yesterday Robert Abela said his government is open to scrutiny. A bunch of hypocrites is what you are.”

What do you make of this exchange?

READ NEXT: WATCH: Minister Silvio Schembri Apologises To Foreign Workers And Urges Maltese Landlords To Be Flexible With Rent Rates

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).

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