Labour Party stays silent after local councillor’s pro-Hitler remark

The Labour Party has failed to respond to questions about comments made by Dingli local councillor Ryan Tanti, who claimed it was a mistake that Adolf Hitler wasn't allowed to finish what he started in a social media tirade aimed at Israeli diplomat Danny Danon.What a shame, what a mistake those before us made when they didn't let Adolf finish what he started, Tanti wrote in a Facebook comment.The comment, which appeared to make a clear reference to the Holocaust, was deleted hours later. However, weeks after the remarks were made, there has been no public indication of disciplinary action, condemnation, or clarification from the Labour Party.The Malta Independent made several attempts to contact a Labour Party spokesperson about the situation, sending questions on the matter and following up with repeated phone calls and email reminders. However, no reply was received.Tanti's comments came after a heated exchange between Maltese diplomat Vaness Frazier, the UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, and Israel's permanent representative to the UN, Danny Danon.During the exchange, Danon was aggressively addressed Fraizer as she defended a report concerning violations of children's rights committed by Israel. He shouted at her to be quiet and later called for her removal from her post.The incident drew support for Frazier in Malta, with many defending the Maltese diplomat against Danon's conduct. Prime Minister Robert Abela and his Nationalist Party counterpart Alex Borg were among those who showed their support to Frazier after the incident.At the time of writing, the Labour Party had still not replied to questions sent by The Malta Independent.A spokesperson from the Ministry responsible for local councils, which is led by Alison Zerafa Civelli, also did not respond to questions on the matter when they were posed by a journalist from Newsbook.Tanti has represented the Labour Party on the Dingli local council since 2019.He was re-elected to his seat in 2024, where he achieved 37 first-count votes. The low number of first count votes however was down to the fact that the locality's mayor and deputy mayor - Raymond Schembri and Miguel Abela respectively - pooled the lion's share of the PL vote between them.Tanti took the PL's third seat out of five.