President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca says she had a prior engagement. Photo: Darrin Zammit LupiPresident Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca yesterday declined to comment on a claim she missed Sunday’s canonisation ceremony in Rome because her husband was left out of Malta’s delegation.
Sources told Times of Malta the President had turned down the invitation to lead the delegation when she learnt her husband Edgar was not among the five other members.
She offered to give up her place for him, the sources said, but the Holy See told the Maltese government that, according to protocol, if Mr Preca led the delegation it would be seated further back, rather than the front rows.
Sources said the Office of the Prime Minister disagreed with sending the President’s husband instead and so Speaker Anġlu Farrugia and the Prime Minister’s wife Michelle Muscat led the delegation.
Probed by Times of Malta to confirm or deny these reports, Ms Coleiro Preca yesterday declined to comment.
I do not think that the Office of the President should be allowed to get into this kind of speculation
“I do not think that the Office of the President should be allowed to get into this kind of speculation,” she said. “Unfortunately it was not possible for me to renounce my commitments in Malta as the visit from this [migrants’ rights] delegation had been planned several weeks before.
“Had there been an available flight that could have made it possible to be back from Rome in time to be present for the preliminary work ahead of the three-day conference I would have attended.”
In a statement issued on Monday, the President defended the decision to miss the canonisation of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II as a number of “high-level” meetings at San Anton Palace could not be postponed.
These meetings were in connection to three days of talks on the issue of migration, which were attended by representatives from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration.