Labour Party president disowns Ian Borg’s nomination of Donald Trump

Alex Sciberras has disassociated himself from Ian Borg’s suggestion that Donald Trump should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 

The Labour Party president did not mince his words and stressed that the US president’s statements and actions certainly do not warrant him any peace accolades. 

He was contacted for comment after Borg, Malta’s foreign minister, stated that he had presented the American president with a letter he had written in his own name, in which he informed him that he had nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Borg cited Trump’s work in “mediating” the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

But the Labour Party president shared different views on the nomination of a president who is widely criticised for sowing division:

“Ian and I are good friends and we share absolute mutual respect and esteem, but on this issue, I cannot agree with him. I can never endorse Trump - a man who espouses populist, anti-democratic discourse, who has waged a campaign against minorities and LGBTIQ rights and who suppresses freedom of expression."

Alex Sciberras, right, and Ian Borg at an event in April. Photo: Facebook

Sciberras added: "It’s enough to see the unrest developing daily in the US, and the divisiveness he generates. In my view, such a president does not deserve a Nobel Peace Prize.”

Borg was one of just eight top government officials from around the world who attended Trump’s inauguration last January. 

'Undermines Malta's credibility'

Centrist Party Momentum also condemned the nomination saying Trump's supposed role in mediating between Armenia and Azerbaijan was an assertion that is both historically inaccurate and politically baffling.

“What is even more troubling, however, is the minister’s apparent belief that Donald Trump, a political figure who has sown division, hatred, and mistrust within his own country and far beyond, is somehow worthy of the world’s highest honour for peace,” they said.

“For Malta’s foreign minister to publicly glorify such a figure not only displays poor judgement but undermines Malta’s credibility as a nation committed to diplomacy, human rights, and peace," said Momentum, as it called on Borg to retract his nomination.

Former One News editor Sandro Mangion also weighed into the discussion and said he could not understand why Borg made the nomination.   

“I’m trying to understand what Trump is threatening us with, or what he is promising us, that has brought us to this point,” he said.   

Mangion, who also served as a private secretary in the foreign ministry for a while, said Trump encouraged the “genocide” of the Palestinian people through his unconditional support for Israel. 

He said Trump is sending forces to kidnap beat and imprison people he disagrees with.  

Mangion said that Malta boasts of being a bastion of democracy, rule of law, free speech, and civil rights but is now supporting an autocrat.

"This is someone who is disarming democracy, seizing his country’s institutions, muzzling the free press, and ruthlessly pursuing a politics of confrontation and hatred that could lead to civil war, while persecuting minorities and excluding them from society.”