Culture is a form of ‘soft power’ that should be used to empower citizens rather than “denigrate activists, silence people and prohibit the right to protest,” MEP Francis Zammit Dimech told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Dr Zammit Dimech.

Dr Zammit Dimech, who served as Culture Minister between 2004 and 2008, hit out at the Maltese government while speaking on the new European Agenda for Culture, saying that government officials were using culture and heritage “as an excuse to denigrate and attempt to erase the memory of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia”.

He highlighted the repeated removal of tributes to Ms Caruana Galizia from the Great Siege Monument site in Valletta, saying their removal was “the antithesis of what culture is all about”.

Dr Zammit Dimech, who is running for an MEP seat in the May 2019 European Parliament elections, said that it was a politicians’ duty to boost the cultural sector through concrete policies rather than political interference.

He said Malta’s cultural sector was being politicised, both through a series of politically-motivated appointments as well as political interference in cultural decisions.

The MEP highlighted what he had done during his time as culture minister, from the opening of St James Cavalier to overseeing the transformation of Malta’s orchestra from a chamber to philharmonic one.

Dr Zammit Dimech’s proposals for the European Agenda include increased funding for festivals, greater accessibility of the Creative Europe programme in favour of small organisations such as band clubs and measures to avoid excessive or double taxation for artists.