Helena Dalli’s audition in front of two joint committees of the European Parliament was a real pleasure to watch, for two main reasons.

The first reason concerns Dalli’s knowledge of the issues that the upcoming Commissioner will have to tackle under her new ‘equality’ portfolio. She simply performed brilliantly.

Undoubtedly, with regard to knowledge of one’s portfolio, hers has been the best rendering ever since 2004, when Maltese politicians vying for top European posts have been subjected to grilling sessions by parliamentary committees. No hesitations, no doubts, no waffling. No indication of complete ignorance of the subject as, unfortunately, has been the case sometimes.

This was to be expected, since Dalli has been the first Maltese politician assigned the same portfolio on which she had already been working for six years as a Maltese Minister. Her deep knowledge of the subject was there for all to witness.

But Dalli’s performance will also long be remembered for a second factor: the ease and nonchalance with which she was able to twist clear historical facts, dump the Prime Minister and even deny her own clear past statements.

Niccolò Machiavelli is the world renowned inventor of what we today call ‘political science’. His most quoted maxim states that in order to be successful in politics “the end justifies the means”.

People however forget that Machiavelli was very clear in qualifying this statement: “It is neither moral, ethical or justifiable, but if you want to be successful in politics the end justifies the means.”

And on October 2, Dalli proved to one and all that she really wanted to continue being successful in politics.

Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination is no femicide. Had a male journalist-blogger been blown up the way Caruana Galizia was, it would have been exactly the same: a brutal assassination

Her twisting of facts concerned the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Once, twice, she referred to it as a “femicide”. I was scratching my head and asking myself why. Dalli is not only an intelligent and well-read person. She is also well versed in the English language. It was definitely not a lapsus linguae on her part.

By using the word ‘femicide’, she was hoping to kill two birds with one stone. First of all, she would be using a less harsher sounding word than ‘assassination’ and therefore deflect some attention off the Muscat government’s handling of the issue; and secondly, with the accent on the ‘female’ connotation of the word, she would further curry favour with all those who have feminist issues at heart.

Sorry, but she elicited the opposite reaction. As the future Commissioner well knows, femicide means “the killing of a woman or girl, on account of her gender, in particular by men who believe they have a right of possession over the woman”. Caruana Galizia’s assassination is no femicide. Had a male journalist-blogger been blown up the way Caruana Galizia was, it would have been exactly the same: a brutal assassination. 

To be successful in politics, the end justifies the means. And if this entails dumping a Prime Minister and party leader you have been working with for the past 12 years… so be it. For more than three years, like all her colleague ministers and MPs in the Labour parliamentary group, the upcoming Commissioner has been compelled to repeat the usual parrot-like excuses to try to deflect attention off the Panamanian behaviour of the two political delinquents, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri. But, when on October 2 she was asked this same question for the umpteenth time, the stakes were really high and her future as Commissioner depended upon her answer. Could she risk the usual parrot-like cliché? No. Not if she wanted to be successful.

And so she came up with that wonderful one liner which dumped her Prime Minister, his Chief of Staff and her minister colleague all in one breath: “No, I do not agree. I would have done things totally different[ly]”.

But, on such an important occasion, dumping others might just not have been enough. According to Machiavelli, sometimes, one even needs to dump oneself in order to be successful. And Dalli certainly wanted to be successful. Asked about the thorny issue of abortion she had absolutely no doubts.

Last year, Dalli responded this way to her interviewers’ questions: “are you against abortion?”- Yes; “are you against abortion in all cases?” – Yes; “are you against abortion even when the woman’s life is in danger?” – Yes; “are you against abortion even in the case of rape”? – Yes.

But 12 months later, the answer in the European Parliament was the exact opposite: “You have my word that this is a guarantee that [safeguards] sexual and reproductive rights without exception”.

Viva Machiavelli.

And may you work well in your new office, Commissioner Dalli. I, for one, will be reminding you that equality applies also to Malta and that you should be pressing the Maltese government to treat the political delinquents Mizzi and Schembri like any other delinquent in Malta. 

Arnold Cassola, academic and politician, is former secretary general of the European Green Party and former member of the Italian Parliament.