Updated at 11.20am with Desirei Grech’s comments

An explosives team was called to Birkirkara on Thursday evening after the newly elected mayor, Desirei Grech received several threats from a former local council volunteer and caught him circling her car.

Speaking to Times of Malta, Grech said she began to receive threatening notes from a former local council volunteer after she was sworn in as interim mayor in July.

She said she did not know the person, but that he was a former volunteer associated with the Labour Party and “could not accept the change in the council”. 

Shortly after being sworn in as mayor, Grech and other councillors began to find threatening notes in the council garage or next to the store room.

One note read: "Don’t you dare try to stop me, because you will see what will happen.”

On 19 July, another threatening note was found on the store room door.

"Try kicking me out, f***k you, I am a volunteer, and I come and go as I please," the note read. "I am not like you, liars and traitors."

One of the notes left by the former PL local council volunteer. Credit: Desirei Grech

She said while the notes never addressed her directly, she said it was clear who the volunteer was addressing. 

Grech filed two police reports, yet the man kept returning. 

On Thursday evening, following a council meeting, the man was seen at the council car park. Grech said the council secretary approached him and asked him to leave the site but he did not move. 

"I saw him for the first time yesterday, as he was circling my car," she said, adding she contacted the police immediately after. 

The police called the bomb squad to check Grech's car. No explosives were found. 

Grech said the council will now proceed against the man in court. 

In a Facebook post, Grech said she decided to call the police after the “diverse threats and harassment” she received increased. 

She said she had to take the necessary steps and would take legal action against all those involved.

“I condemn any form of action to make me give up and not allow me to work for the good of Birkirkara,” she added.

PN deputy leader Alex Perici Calascione said he visited the Birkirkara council, following a request by PN leader Bernard Grech after reports that the explosive team was on site.

He condemned “all forms of threats” and said the PN will not allow “anyone or anything” to obstruct the work of its representatives. He also thanked the police for responding promptly to the call. 

Outgoing PN general secretary Michael Piccinino said the party will not allow councillors to be intimidated because they are doing their job. 

PL councillors disassociate from threats 

Reacting to the incident, Labour councillor Yana Borg Debono Grech posted a statement by the Labour councillors, who all condemn acts of threats and vandalism.

“We dissociate ourselves completely from the acts, and express our solidarity,” the statement read. 

Also reacting to last night's incident, the Nationalist Party expressed its solidarity with Grech and strongly condemned any form of intimidation against public officials who are performing their civil duties. 

Grech has been serving as an interim mayor since July after councillors could not agree on who should be mayor following the local council elections. 

Grech had received the highest number of votes from the candidates of the Nationalist Party, and the party won the most votes in the Birkirkara election. 

Back in July, Birkirkara's most popular Labour councillor Yana Borg Debono Grech blocked a party plan to nominate independent candidate Kaylocke Buhagiar as town mayor.

Councillors held a vote to decide who will be mayor six times. Five out of six Labour councillors voted for Buhagiar to be the locality’s next mayor, while all PN councillors voted against it.

Borg Debono Grech, who won more votes than any other candidate in the local council elections, rebelled against her party by voting against Buhagiar's nomination.