Thread by @bugdavem

Is this the most “busy” square & monument in Malta or even Europe?

It started on 17 October 2017 when a day after #DaphneCaruanaGalizia’s assassination in a car bomb, her husband & children were required to go to court to defend the 50 odd libel cases her abusers brought vs her.

Family friends aware of the injustice of it all, placed flowers on the monument opposite the law courts as a reminder that justice should be seen to be done.

Days later those flowers multiplied and were joined by a photo of #DaphneCaruanaGalizia along with candles and messages of support.

A march of solidarity was organised by the school were her children attended which culminated in more flowers, messages and candles.

Even journalists marched down the Main Street of Valletta in a show of support claiming that the pen should not be silenced by fear. Again more flowers and candles were placed.

Here is where things already at such an early stage took a turn. Amidst the journalists setting partisanship aside, one “news” outlet, @inewsmalta or rather @PL_Malta’s propaganda outlet thought otherwise. Atop messages of sympathy, sadness & rage a newspaper was thrown.

The cover of that newspaper read that @JosephMuscat_JM “would leave no stone unturned”. The newspaper atop the flowers & messages of support featured on the front page of that same newspaper with a headline that @MaltaGov was offering “€1m reward” for information on her killers.

What few outside Malta know is that a mere 3 earlier that same newspaper’s editorial had called for the “cleansing” of journalists specifically naming #DaphneCaruanaGalizia. The editor @josefcaruana went on to work at OPM and is now running for MEP for @PL_Malta

We also know that concurrently in secret @PL_Malta online groups after the macabre celebrations (after years of demonisation) died down

theshiftnews.com/2018/05/24/beh…

anger and resentment started to be manufactured over the monument being “taken over”

One starts doing it subtly at first. Repetition is key.

The messages gain traction and people take unilateral action: timesofmalta.com/mobile/article…

Then slowly but surely more people pick up the messages being sent out:

Silly polls were started and manipulated:

And it becomes a wave:

Each time, people gathered and put what became a shrine to #DaphneCaruanaGalizia together again

At a point someone even applied to the Valletta local council to have the shrine removed.

This was refused. But some didn’t take it too lightly and seeded an alternative idea:

@PL_Malta linked people also placed photos of two bomb victims from Malta’s 70s/80s (a communist almost IRA era) a link (they’re unsolved) that was made with hours of Daphne’s assassination in order to dilute

Even a photo of Dom Mintoff got added:

The idea being to drag the death of a journalist into comfortable partisan - us vs them - territory. Even senior government officials joined the fray:

The photos were eventually cleared in the night.

And restored

Amidst a game of vandalise or clear (sometimes by government cleaners) & rebuild, a new strategy emerged - cover the whole thing.

It started with things like this:

Or this:

Or this:

Or this (the only place a permit was given):

Each time, each 16 of the month, people still met and placed flowers and candles. Tourists too joined in remembering Daphne.

Ministers joined in the fray of calling for its removal too. Others paraded survey results or ridiculed her family for placing flowers:

Then came September. The feast celebrated by that monument - Victory Day. The monument gets cleared for the 20th or so for restoration & wreaths:

It gets put together again:

Then a manufactured reaction starts:

And picks up speed: (folder with screenshots & videos uploaded): drive.google.com/drive/folders/…

The reaction? “Restoration”

The monument gets boarded up

And hoarded

And labelled

The reason claimed for the “restoration” was damage from “wax” from the candles. However as shown in a separate thread this was oil dripped during the prior restoration

Within a day behind the hoarding the oil was cleaned (you can tell it was oil from the method used too):

Yet the hoarding stayed.

For over two months, with nothing happening inside:

People even jumped inside at a point & placed a photo:

It stayed there for a month.

On the outside, people still placed banners & candles

Each time they’d be taken down or people would incite to have them taken down

Now today, an escalation. After 2 months of hoarding up for no reason and a good 60 “cleansings” of any further candles or flowers on the outside, Justice Minister @OwenBonnici cordons off the already hoarded up monument.

The reason? The paving, lighting & railings need to be restored too. It is now said to be ready (maybe) in mid to late December.

https://twitter.com/televisionmalta/status/1060173463623737350?s=21

Needless to say, not a permit is in sight nor any concrete plans.

The closest one can find to this show has to be in Putin’s Russia both with the Nemstov bridge:

newyorker.com/news/our-colum…

And the Pushkin statue or Triumfalnaya Square:

themoscowtimes.com/articles/pushk…

Except this is not in Putin’s Russia or Erdogan’s Turkey (similar game with memorials) but in the European Union.

Mini update, courtesy @darrinzl, the inner barrier has now been removed showing that, whilst flowers & candles for #DaphneCaruanaGalizia were removed 80+ times, the wreaths laid by dignatories on Victory Day, 2 months ago, remained there rotting away (also in pictures above)