Manuel Delia

18/10/2026

Is having an antimafia law the same as being a mafia state? Parliament would be defining a crime, not certifying that it has been committed.

Criminalising mafia associations is not the same as declaring Malta a mafia state

02/10/2026

I feel enormous admiration, and great sadness, at Joe Farrugia’s decision to return his Ġieħ ir-Repubblika.

This is not the gesture of someone who scorns the honour. Quite the opposite. Joe rightly deserved that medal and the recognition of a grateful nation for the long years of service he has given it. He was proud to receive it. Giving it back must therefore have been extremely painful.

That is what makes this such a powerful act of conscience.

This is not the protest of someone nursing a personal grievance, or complaining that he has been personally wronged. It is the protest of someone who believes that the country he has spent much of his life serving is being harmed.

There is something particularly moving about someone who has given so much of his life to his country looking at what we are leaving to those who come after us and saying: this is not what I worked for. This is not what they deserve.

Taken alone, a gesture like Joe’s can feel futile, even wasteful. A medal is returned. The machinery carries on.

But that is how silence works too. Each of us thinks our individual voice will make no difference, and collectively we allow things to remain as they are.

If enough of us speak up, if enough of us refuse the comfort of silence and the convenience of complicity, things can change.

It is in our hands to keep things as they are. And it is in our hands to change them.

I have long been an admirer of Joe Farrugia.

Today I have even more reason to be.

Former employers’ association head says he ‘no longer has faith in our republic’

04/09/2026

02/09/2026

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.

When the Yorgen Fenech trial is over we will still have the same country. We will still have to live together. We will still have to decide what we have learned, writes Manuel Delia

16/08/2026

We cannot outsource political judgement to a jury, says Manuel Delia

15/06/2026

An article I co-wrote with Pieter Omtzigt.

Pieter Omtzigt e Manuel Delia analizzano le sfide poste dalla disinformazione, dalla crisi della fiducia pubblica e dalle trasformazioni dell'ecosistema informativo europeo.

15/05/2026

Manuel Delia explores how planning governance, weak enforcement, and discretionary decision-making are affecting Malta’s economy, investor confidence, competition, and the long-term value of its built environment.

10/05/2026

Politics, in principle, should be a contest of ideas about the community’s future, says Manuel Delia

15/02/2026

Free speech safeguards our right to speak, but it does not exempt us from the duty to think, verify and act in good faith, says Manuel Delia.

04/02/2026

Illum il-Qorti tal-Appell difnet il-gideb li gideb fuqi Simon Mercieca. Żewġt iqrati issa ddeċidew li l-allegazzjonijiet li għamel fuqi kienu foloz u libellużi u li meta professur full-time tal-istorja jippubblika “fatti”, il-pubbliku għandu dritt jippretendi li dawn il-fatti iċċekkjahom, ivverifikahom, u huma veri. Minflok, Mercieca abbuża mill-kreddibiltà tal-professjoni tiegħu biex ixerred gideb fuqi u fuq oħrajn. Il-verità issa tkellmet, b’mod ċar u darba għal dejjem.

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Today, Malta’s Court of Appeal has finally ended Simon Mercieca’s lies about me. Two courts have now ruled that his allegations were defamatory and that, when a full-time history professor publishes “facts,” the public has a right to expect that they have been checked and verified as true. Instead, Mercieca exploited the credibility his profession grants him to spread falsehoods about me and others. The truth has now been spoken, clearly and definitively.