Ms Annita Demetriou:

I thank Senators for their kind words. I am really honoured to receive all these nice comments today. Most importantly, I have the opportunity to address Senators and a country which cherishes the same norms and principles as us. For me, the decade and season we are living in is a fragile time. The most important thing and the only answer is to be compliant with our norms and principles. I know we have many challenges in front of us. The only answer is to protect our democracy. I totally agree that nothing is for granted, not even the democracy or parliaments we want to serve. We have to be really careful about the messages we want to pass to society and the people.

My concern is that gender equality should not be in a second category on the agenda. We need to place it in the same position with the other issues because we have managed progress but we still have a long road to follow. That is why we need to be careful about insisting on those topics. They are really important for us too. We need solidarity between us. We are two islands inside the European Union. We should avoid double standards in policy. We need to truly work together, and not just us on our small islands, but all member states in the European Union, because at the end of the day, nothing is forgiven, not even the European Union if we are not able to protect it.