‘Our grief must turn to anger’

A silent protest will be held this evening at St Venera in honour of Miriam Pace who was killed when her home collapsed on Monday.

Civil society organisation Repubblika urged people to attend the gathering at 7pm in Triq Abela Scolaro, the site where the house collapsed. Pace, 54, was trapped inside.

Rescuers spent most of the day yesterday trying to recover the body buried beneath the rubble. Police say the collapse was caused by construction next door, the latest in a list of building collapses that have left people without their homes or compensation.

“Somebody is responsible for this death. We want justice. We don’t want any more deaths,” Repubblika said.

“Our grief must turn to anger.”

Pace was a mother of two and she leaves behind her husband, Carmel.

Mark Anthony Sammut, who resigned from his role as PN executive committee president on a point of principle, made a scathing statement on social media linking the tragedy to corruption:

“A culture of impunity needs to be created to get away with corruption. A culture of impunity can only be created by killing enforcement. But then everyone can do what they want. And when that happens, those who suffer the most are the ones who have nobody to defend them and those who have the most get greedy.

The result is that people get hurt, people get killed and people lose their homes. This is the price we pay, all of us, for corruption and impunity. This is what ‘continuity’ means.”