Aaron Farrugia regrets citing village feasts as a reason for traffic, saying he would “100%” not mention them if asked the question again.

In a Times of Malta interview, the Transport and Infrastructure Minister argued that his answer had been misconstrued but that he would steer clear of the matter if it arose again. 

“I would avoid mentioning them, 100%,” Farrugia said of village feasts’ impact on traffic. “But that’s with the benefit of hindsight.”

The minister said that he had cited feasts as "one of a long list" of factors causing traffic - a list that included ongoing road works. 

In reality, the minister's statement in August 2022 came in response to a question by Times of Malta about road works causing intense traffic jams. 

He had replied by arguing that road closures due to village feasts were also to blame for gridlock. 

At the time, the minister said: “We receive applications [for road closures] every day in summer for the feasts taking place,” he said.

“Last weekend alone we had three, if not four applications asking us to close roads because the festa passes through there.”

“The country needs to decide if we want to have the feasts which have taken place for over the past fifty to sixty years, or not,” he said at the time.

Speaking this week, Farrugia said the idea he intended to convey – that several roads are closed in summer due to feasts – was fundamentally correct, but acknowledged the PR faux pas.

An apology to Bis-Serjetà satirist

Farrugia also revealed that he had apologised to Bis-Serjetà satirist Matt Bonanno after he exposed his identity in the course of a public spat on Twitter in 2021. 

The minister had taken offence to a Bis-Serjetà post which poked fun at Farrugia for his mother’s propensity to take to Facebook to defend her politician-son. 

As the exchange became personal, former National Book Council chairman Mark Camilleri weighed in and ended up exchanging insults with the minister. 

Farrugia said that he had contacted Bonanno and Camilleri the following day to apologise. 

Bonanno, he said, had thanked him for doing so. 

Criticising the PN's language skills

In the Times of Malta interview, Farrugia was also asked about a claim he made on ONE TV in which he claimed to have read the PN’s pre-budget document, which he said had been written in “terrible Maltese”.

The PN document was actually written in English. 

But when asked about that gaffe, the minister was unfazed. 

“What I meant to say was that it was written in English but translated literally from Maltese, as though the author was thinking in Maltese,” he said. “I made a mistake.” 

Watch the full interview with Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia on Monday, January 23.