Laws should also be enacted to safeguard politicians from uncalled-for intrusions into their private and sexual lives, Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri said today.

Much of what is written about politicians is meant to catch the attention of the masses or provide for their distraction from important issues, providing fodder for the 8pm news, Dr Schembri wrote in today's Times of Malta Talking Point. 

"But there's much at stake, and realising it quickly and doing something about it is very much in the public interest... The time is ripe for this country to enter into a serious discussion about this matter."

Her comments come in the wake of a political and legal wrangle between Daphne Caruana Galizia and Economy Minister Chris Cardona after the blogger claimed he had visited a brothel in Germany, an allegation he rejects. 

Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Dr Schembri, who steered the pro-divorce campaign before she became an MP said any past politicians who achieved much for their countries and the world would not have been capable of holding office if one had subjected their intimate lives to the scrutiny politicians are subjected to today.

"All it takes to get the country's hormone levels up a notch is one blogger backed by a few sordid politicians and fewer still behind-the-scenes movers and shakers frantically clicking away on their laptops and raising hell about an alleged sex scandal. I say ‘alleged sex scandal’, because that’s all it needs to be, irrespective of whether it happened or not and whether it was a wardrobe malfunction or a blooper of Nixonian proportions."

"If one needs to get attention, for whatever reason, be it as a way of spiking rates of clicks per page on a blog or improving viewing rates to deviating attention from a major event that puts the current administration in a good light, there is nothing that works better than an alleged steamy spa experience of a minister when abroad on government work."

There is nothing that works better than an alleged steamy spa experience of a minister when abroad on government work

She asks whether the private lives of politicians, "and by private here I mean sexual", should be made public.

"Is it in the public interest what Kama Sutra positions our ministers are capable of contorting into and whom they decide to indulge with in tantric pleasures?
Should people demand to know or expect, at least, to be told the details of their politicians' private lives, or should, on the other hand, the politician demand more protection from the public knowing his private business?"

Dr Schembri said it is imperative to realise there is a clear demarcation line between what is in the public interest and what the public is merely interested in.

She warned that the constant breathing down politicians' necks when it comes to private life would mean no one will be interested in giving their services to their country.