‘Over my dead body’: far-right’s antivax hothead has a bone to pick with EU

Partit Popolari’s all-male line-up in Malta’s general elections of 27 March reflect its hard right positioning.

Led by Paul Salomone, a veteran of Malta’s right-wing formations since the first ‘anti immigration’ protest held by the defunct Alleanza Nazzjonali Repubblikana, the party includes people like anti-immigration firebrand Raymond Ambrogio, who once convened a counter-protest to the Black Lives Matter protest in 2021, and Catholic nostalgics like Karmemu Borg, of Malta Pro Christiana.

Its latest find is candidate Clint Calleja, a candidate on the 1st and 5th districts whose latest press conference has been a tour de force of all the right-wing’s bete-noires: abortion, EU power, Bill Gates, George Soros, and Goldman Sachs.

In a fiery speech among all PP candidates, Calleja railed against pro choice campaigners and claimed the European Union was imposing abortion rights onto member states.

“Abortion in Malta? Over my dead body… and this won’t stop here. I’m not even going to tackle this politically. You know what we’ll do? We will kill the demand for abortion. And that’s why we will be a support to these women. We are the ones who are fighting for women’s rights.”

Calleja then turned his sights onto the EU, claiming Brussels was imposing COVID vaccines – which he dubbed “poison in our bodies” – before pivoting back again on the subject of abortion.

“This is the Europe of Cain, because it wants our blood. Metsola! And that other trash,” he said referring to Maltese EU Commissioner Helena Dalli, “who is now a grandmother… so that’s equality, then – she doesn’t want her kids to do an abortion, but our children, the workers’ childrens, the Maltese nation’s… they want to replace us – with what? Our families are already shrinking.”

Calleja then blamed an international conspiracy made up of typical right-wing targets – the EC, Goldman Sachs, billionaire financiers Bill Gates, George Soros and WEF founder Klaus Schwab – which he dubbed American imperialists. “I will obey no law from any corporation! If you don’t want to live like a slave with a face-mask or green pass, and if you want to protect your children, then you only have one avenue: Partit Popolari.”