When a veteran lawyer shared a blog post criticising Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera and her political connections on Sunday, her brother, Environment Minister José Herrera lost it and called the lawyer - Edward Debono - an “a**hole”, among other things.

Speaking to the Times of Malta yesterday, Dr Herrera admitted that he had attributed unbecoming adjectives to Dr Debono and that he got so angry that he lost it.

However, he said that he had been provoked by the lawyer for a long time.

“Yes, I admit that I’d lost it when I wrote what I wrote about Dr Debono,” Dr Herrera said.

I’ve been getting insults from the same lawyer for a long time

“However, I am only human and I err as much as other people. I’ve been getting insults from the same lawyer for a long time and in the end I lost it,” he added.

When the Times of Malta pointed out to Dr Herrera that ministers are supposed to lead by example and make sure that they did not give in to any provocation, he humbly agreed.

“Yes, I know that I am a minister, but even ministers have a limit of tolerance. In 20 years in Parliament, I’ve never, ever made any nasty comments about anyone either on Facebook or anywhere else,” he insisted.

“However, ministers are not immune to losing it every now and then and yes, I admit that I lost it when insults were levelled against my family by Dr Debono,” he said.

Asked whether he regrets the incident and apologises, Dr Herrera immediately said that he was prepared to apologise for using such language.

“However, I feel that Dr Debono should also apologise for insulting my family repeatedly. This is not fair, as I never insulted him or his family,” Dr Herrera insisted.

Dr Herrera’s Facebook post, which Dr Debono shared on his timeline, was taken from Manuel Delia’s online blog named ‘More iced buns’ and featured Juliana Scerri Ferrante, a close friend of Magistrate Scerri Herrera, appointed recently to chair a government board.

Soon after the sharing of the post, Dr Herrera replied online, calling Dr Debono “the father of all hypocrites”, as he had also benefited from ‘iced buns’ during PN administrations.

Tit-for-tat comments that followed led Dr Herrera to use the “unbecoming” language.

Ironically, Dr Herrera and Dr Debono have common family ties.

ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com