She closes her eyes, presses the clutch pedal, and turns the key. She opens her eyes again in relief at the sound of the engine’s roar. She is alive.
This has been Maria Efimova’s daily morning ritual since she and her family fled Malta in 2017. They left shortly after a car-bomb killed investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. As one of the sources who helped Caruana Galizia unveil a web of corruption and money laundering involving Malta’s highest-ranking officials, Maria has been the target of persecution, harassment, and threats on her life.
Aware of DiEM25’s defence of whistleblowers like Julian Assange, Efimova approached DiEM25 last month and asked if we could help her: “At this point,” she told us, “going public, sharing my story with the world, is all I have left to protect myself and my family. Like an insurance policy in case something was to happen to us.”
We obliged, of course, and publicised her story in various media outlets in Europe. But sharing Maria’s story hoping that a few press articles will deter a murderous, corporate establishment from silencing her is not enough.
So, we are establishing the DiEM25 Whistleblowers Protection Fund to help cover legal fees, run awareness campaigns, and develop all actions we can take to help protect whistleblowers like Maria – the brave women and men who are risking their freedom and lives for a corrupt-free society.
Will you join us fight back, protect, and defend whistleblowers like Maria? Any amount you donate towards DiEM25’s Whistleblowers Protection Fund will make a difference.
