Malta has seriously become the land of the surreal. We are the country that has some of the most progressive laws protecting the LGBTIQ minority and at the same time, a law that allows for the saving of a pregnant woman if her pregnancy is jeopardising her life, has stirred a vicious social-political mud slinging contest.
We aren't even talking about a proper pro-choice law that legalises abortion on demand up to a certain period, like the one that was passed in Ireland after Savita Halappanavar died when her much needed life-saving abortion was denied to her; we are talking about a law that allows a woman's life be saved.
Now this is where it gets surreal: The Prime Minister of Malta and his Labour government are repeatedly being referred to as fascists and compared to Hitler for this, particularly from the opposition party that is conservative, which still carries a motto saying "Religio et Patria" and actually has its history rooted in fascism. Yes, the "NATIONALIST" party of Malta that together with the Catholic Church wanted to deny Malta votes for women, the decriminalisation of homosexuality, divorce, contraceptives, gay marriage, an effective IVF fertility treatment, and now women's reproductive healthcare, is calling the Maltese Prime Minister 'Fascist'.
Now disclaimer: at no point am I saying the Nationalist Party today is a party of Fascists - I will not make their same mistake. However they are a conservative religious party and as such will share conservative values that were also shared by the Christian (more so Catholic) Nazis.
Maybe the PN has forgotten all about its roots, but people who are pro-birth (at all costs) like they are, have always been part of the conservative political spectrum - it is kind of in the definition of being a conservative and a traditionalist, especially when it's pro-birth of the "desired" demographic of people.
Nazis were aware of women's power to regenerate their Aryan race. Aryan women were forbidden from even using contraceptives or aborting in a legal policy called Lebensborn. Men were allowed legally to have no less than 4 children in or out of wedlock; they didn't care as long as the Reich grew larger. Homes for single mothers were made where they were given all the "care and support" as well as recruited adoptive parents for their children. (Maybe that's where the pro-life:pro-birth camp are getting the "she should stay pregnant and give it up for adoption" cry.) So rather than aborting, women were forced to give birth for Hitler through a legal conservative framework.
It is no accident that pro-life groups in Malta were linked to the gatherings of European neo-fascists, participating in seminars about "traditional family values". Many seem to have forgotten this little piece of news that was shoved in a dark closet along with the ex-gay evangelical Christians.
Hitler's propaganda included the veneration and elevation of the Aryan mother - after all this was the only envisaged purpose for a German woman - to bear children for the Reich. A woman that bore 4 or more children for the Reich was given a medal: the cross of the Mother of the Reich. That was the highest ideal a German woman could aspire to.
Please note that unlike the military crosses, this was more in the shape of a Christian crucifix in comparison to other military regalia.
The link between Nazism and Christianity was more profound than many would like to admit - Lest we forget how Hitler referred to himself as a "German Christian", and in Mein Kampf referred to himself as a soldier of Christ. Nazi anti-semitism found fertile soil in German Christianity, especially Catholicism which from the first centuries of its beginnings all the way to the 20th century had a liturgical line during holy week which said Oremus et pro perfidis Judaeis, or, "let us pray for the treacherous Jews"... (in order for them to convert).
Now I am not talking about the "love thy neighbour" form of Christianity but rather the political propagandist Christianity that served the right so well through the ages, including till recently the election of Donald Trump and the staunch republicans. Christianity and its symbols has been a call card for conservatism and racial supremacy groups such as the KKK, and basically most anti-semite and islamophobic extremist since, including the Christchurch shooter in New Zealand.
The Nazis knew what was the power of propaganda and weaponised it with maximum effect, starting with their own people - especially women who were required to be programmed with patriarchal beliefs of motherhood, thus making themselves vessels for the reich's future supermen. Posters like the one below (right) were issued pushing the archetype of motherhood... but they were not the first to do it. They just modernised an ancient technique.
The cult of the mother has been there for centuries; pushing the idea that the highest ideal for a woman was to be a vessel for children. Nothing is more poignant than the iconography of the holy virgin in Christian culture to manage to do this. Christian children since they are born, they are bombarded with iconography of a modest young woman, with a child in her arms as the highest female role model. Christianity has made this woman into a sacred, impossible ideal - one whose existence is made sacred for accepting to be a vessel for a being's offspring, because that offspring has a purpose even higher than hers - an impossible ideal because this woman was not even allowed to be a normal human being, with a sex life. She was denied sex EVEN AFTER she gave birth to this all-too-important being. Heck! The Catholic church did not even allow her to die in peace, but rather decided to change the canon and make her rise to heaven with her body and soul. This woman that turned into the poster-girl of the perfect woman, was engineered and controlled through the centuries for propagandist purposes. The holy virgin is nothing more than a patriarchal propaganda tool by pro-birth cults.
I do not think I need to point out the role this iconography has in Malta. I can just remind you that it was a member of Maltese parliament who based his entire anti-divorce law rationale on the fact that "the Madonna is crying".
But back to iconography - the Marian cult around the world is also represented by an organisation called the...wait for it.... LEGION.... of Mary, which also has some form of presence in Malta. (they tried to recruit me as a child). For the historically illiterate, a legion refers to a whole military battalion of Ancient Rome - whose glory days was attempted to be replicated by Hitler and Mussolini. The Legion of Mary logo is actually a standard very much reminescent of the Roman and the Reich eagle... just look it up.
Guess who also painted the Madonna with child shown above.... it was der Führer himself. Maybe, fascist men are narcissists with mummy issues - who knows? maybe that is where a particular brand of misogyny is coming from.
Speaking of Narcissism, the Cult of Motherhood is right now showing its teeth in Malta and it is projecting on the left their own misgivings by calling them fascists. We should not let them give the liberal left the labels that are historically theirs. We should remind them that the liberal left has always been for the emancipation of women and minorities. The reason why historically and in most of the world, the liberal left is pro-choice, is because the emancipation of women cannot happen without giving women control over their bodies and their reproductive functions. The left also knows that one of the best ways to fight poverty and vulnerability is to allow women to flourish in any way and every way they find fit for themselves, rather than programming them as mere reproductive vessels.
We need to curb this cult of motherhood, that is misguiding so many well-intended people - You guys may not be Nazis and Fascists, but you sure behave like them. So stop projecting those labels on others. Learn some history and those of you virtue-signalling how much work they do for human rights, waving a pseudo-liberal flag of socialism and then spewing nothing but misogyny and pro-birth patriarchy, know that the Nazis too called themselves "socialists".