In the recent parliamentary vote on the appointment of Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera as Chief Justice, the extremist faction in the Opposition dragged enough deputies along to block the motion. It failed to reach the required two-thirds majority. Fair enough — politics is brutal. But one man stood out for his utter lack of shame: Shadow Minister for Justice Joe Giglio.
While others might have had the decency to stay away or abstain, Giglio marched in and voted against her. He didn’t even have the minimal courtesy to keep his hands clean. Chris Said, to his credit, missed the vote entirely – perhaps he realised the boat had sailed and chose not to stain himself with this particular act of political theatre.
Giglio? No such restraint.
For twenty years, Giglio was an employee in the Herrera family legal office. When he graduated and entered the profession, it was the Herrera family — Dr. Jose Herrera, Consuelo’s brother who gave him a platform, experience, and the foundation of his entire career. Without him, Joe Giglio would have been a nobody. A young lawyer among many, with no name, no network, and no trajectory.
He built his reputation on the back of that office. He worked side by side with the very people he later turned on. And when he eventually left, what happened? The man who once enjoyed the stability of a respected family firm became a professional wanderer, jumping from one office to another, roughly six changes by some counts, never quite settling, never quite replicating the solid base the Herreras had provided.
Today, his practice appears to rely heavily on his wife and children working alongside him. The independent, successful lawyer image has faded into something far more precarious. And yet, with a face smeared in mud and zero sense of gratitude or decency, this is the man who voted against Consuelo Scerri Herrera’s appointment to the highest judicial office in the land.
The hypocrisy is staggering
This is not just politics. This is personal betrayal. The Herrera family lifted him up for two decades, and when the moment came to show even basic respect or loyalty, Giglio chose the role of the hawk. He could have abstained. The vote would still have failed without his support, but at least he wouldn’t have exposed himself as the ultimate ingrate.
Worse still, Giglio did this while carrying multiple conflicts of interest. As an active criminal lawyer, he continues to appear in court, including in cases before Justice Scerri Herrera herself. He has defended accused persons in trials presided over by the very judge he was voting on.
How does one justify that level of brazenness? How do you look a person in the eye whose family gave you your career, whose sister sits on the bench in front of you, and then publicly stab her in the back in Parliament?
A man with any shame would have abstained. A man with any honour would have recognised the debt. Joe Giglio chose neither.
This episode reveals the character of the Shadow Minister for Justice more clearly than any speech or press release ever could. He preaches about justice, integrity, and the rule of law from one side of his mouth, while demonstrating breathtaking ingratitude and conflict of interest from the other.
The Herrera family deserved better. Malta’s justice system deserves better. The Nationalist Party should ask itself whether this is really the face they want representing them on justice matters — a man who bites the hand that fed him for twenty years, all while hiding behind parliamentary privilege.
Joe Giglio didn’t just vote against Consuelo.
He voted against loyalty, against decency, and against his own history.
He did it with a straight face. That takes a very special kind of shamelessness.
4 Comments
Let’s be clear: no MP owes their vote to anyone’s past favours. That kind of thinking belongs to a feudal mindset, not a democratic republic. Dr Joe Giglio had every right, and every obligation, to vote according to his political judgment, not according to who expects a debt to be repaid.
Demanding that an MP vote out of loyalty is precisely the culture Malta needs to leave behind. Parliament is not a personal courtroom, and MPs are not vassals bound to old alliances.
You can criticise his reasoning. You can challenge his politics. But pretending that he somehow owed his vote because of a professional history is nothing short of an attempt to drag Malta back into a system where personal ties trump public duty. Dr Giglio voted as an elected MP on a Party ticket, not as someone expected to bow to past relationships. That is what democracy looks like.
Mr Gafa, it would have been better if you had commented on how this process related to the appointment of a new Chief Justice and how it was handled by both sides. No wonder most people are disappointed by both leaders!
His mask (Joe Giglio), that of the extremists, even so disliked by the extremists PN faction themselves, has long fallen, his interests is for people on the other side, including those that he is indebted to, to be sacrificed at the altar. ULTRA LI NIVELLI GHANDU RAGUN. Vince. dejiem ghandek dritt ghal l’opinioni, imma ragunar li fis-sens tal kelma iqalla listonku ta min jaqrah.
Nassigurak li mill-kummenti tiegħi int ma fhimt xejn. Mhux problema, jekk inqallalek l-istonku taqrahx! Pero’ serraħ rasek li lili ĦADD mhu ser jgħalaqli ħalqi, aktar u aktar fejn nara li qed issir ħsara bla bżonn u bla sens.
Had ma hu qed jipropva jghalaqlek halqek, tant hu ekk li qed naqrawk fuq il-blog ta NIVELLI. luniku blog f’Malta li tista tpeclaq contra l’editur u tibqa tider. Ghal ma nafx kemm il-darba nirepati, ghandek dritt ghall l’opinioni daqs kemm ghandu hadihor.