The President’s speech on Republic Day was a wake-up call to a nation that sometimes appears too dazzled by economic success to realise how many are being left behind and how much more remains to be done to achieve true social justice.

President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca wants her presidency to be more than parades, wreath-laying and ceremonial speeches. Instead she chooses to focus on what is essential in life, saying that decadence is eroding society and drawing it away from the values that once held it together. But she still has hope and used her address to indicate those areas that need most attention.

The President feels that more needs to be done for women’s equality. Despite their educational achievements, women are still on the periphery in areas of important decision-making and this, according to the President, increases the possibilities of abuse and exploitation.

Even on the domestic front, there are women terrorised in their homes, victims of domestic violence, which the President describes as a social disease.

Verbal violence is on the increase, the President warns. It was believed that the social media strengthened democracy but there was an “educational deficit” in the ethical use of this means of communication that is leading to a breakdown rather than to the building of society. Have we reached a point, she asks, where insults and verbal aggression have become so normalised that it is now a way of life?

Also of concern to the President is the education sector, on which six per cent of the gross domestic product is spent but with returns that do not reflect the investment. There is still a considerable number of children and young people leaving compulsory education without obtaining the basic skills. The least successful students, unsurprisingly, come from the lower socio-economic strata and the President argues that the failure in education lies in the shortcomings of social action.

In keeping with her firmly-rooted belief in social justice, the President warned that poverty was still knocking on the door of society. There were people on the threshold of poverty, like the working poor and pensioners, who were unable to cope with the cost of living. Poverty, she warned, threatened human rights.

Turning to another form of impoverishment – the environment – the President said the long years of unbridled development are “making us ill”.

The President also strongly criticised political parties saying they “have disagreed about all aspects of life” in the most public and, at times, most aggressive of ways, all this coming at the expense of the country. Calling for exemplary and ethically correct behaviour, she urged politicians to rise above partisanship and reform the Constitution to strengthen institutions that safeguard democracy and people’s rights.

It was a speech that befitted the Head of State and which also added value and relevance to this highest office in the country. That the President had to express her concern at the fact that “we are not always being successful in making the right ethical choices” is indicative of how much this country’s values have degenerated.

This is the kind of Presidency the country needs, one that makes people pause and listen, putting values before profit, “dignity before frontiers and human rights before occasional charity”.

The President thinks there is still time to imagine a “moral Malta” that is different from the one this country is becoming. It will take more than strong words to change direction but the contribution of the President deserves appreciation and support.