The Great Siege Monument in Valletta has been reopened following restoration works.
The unannounced decision to restore the monument came in early September, when government workers installed hoarding around the site and blocked off access to the memorial, which commemorates the 1565 Great Siege.
Culture Minister Owen Bonnici had said that the restoration works were necessary because the monument had been “damaged” by candlewax dropped by protesters who had turned the site into a makeshift memorial for journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
That explanation did not convince protesters, who said that the government had simply found yet another excuse to wipe all traces of the shrine from the site.
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Protesters continued to leave candles, flowers and portraits of Ms Caruana Galizia at the site, with authorities regularly removing them, sometimes in the dead of night.
According to protest groups, the site has been cleared almost 200 times.
Dr Bonnici has repeatedly insisted that a national monument cannot be used as a memorial site for Ms Caruana Galizia and acknowledged that he had ordered workers to clear the…
