The Ottoman Empire, as it weakened, was called the sick man of Europe. Today there probably isn’t a sick man in Europe but a bad man there really is: Victor Orban, prime minister of Hungary. The disgraceful scenes witnessed yesterday on the border between Hungary and Serbia should make every European hang his head in shame.

Orban, the bully, is the bad man of Europe. Like all bullies he flexes his muscles against the weak and the vulnerable. He is not ashamed to tear gas women and children.

He says that he is defending Christianity. He is not. He is trampling Christian principles under his feet. Had Orban ever read Jesus’ works of mercy – I was hungry … I was a foreigner .. I was sick – he would know that he is the antithesis of Christianity. Orban is not a Christian but the archenemy of Christianity. Orban stands for many things but definitely not for Christianity.

Yesterday’s edition of L’Osservatore Romano featured a front page opinion piece penned by Giuseppe Fiorentino, the newspaper’s deputy-editor. He justifiably criticized the response of European nations, especially Hungary, to the migrant crisis. Fiorentino wrote his piece before witnessing the disgraceful scenes we watched yesterday. His was reaction to the legal action that Orban was threatening refugees with.

“What seems really insurmountable is the persistent inability of Europe to live up to its own fundamental values,” he argued.

Stating that Turkey is home to two million refugees, while the 28 nations of the EU are at a stalemate over welcoming 120,000, Fiorentino wrote that “if one of the European principles-- such as freedom of movement of persons-- falters under the pressure of some tens of thousands of migrants, it means that the very idea of union is really weak.”

It is also disgraceful that the European People’s Party has not kicked Orban and his party out of its fold. It is true that without the Hungarian MEPs the European People’s Party would cease being the largest party in the European Parliament. But with the inclusion of these MEPs the party will lose its soul.

There is also a bad woman of Europe. She is a Maltese compatriot. A former Labour candidate for the post of an MEP. She disgraced Malta by her racist and hateful comments. Sharon Ellul Bonici posted a hateful racist comment on social media recently, saying “suspend Schengen, armies out on European frontiers and shoot to kill. That’s the only temporary solution”.

When the Malta Independent contacted her for comment her pathetic answer was an example of the truthfulness of the saying that when one is in a hole, one should stop digging.

Shame on you, Ellul Bonici.

The Partit Laburista owes it to itself to distance itself from such tripe.

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