You must know by now (if not, where have you been the last few weeks?!) that Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend and half Maltese national, is campaigning for the U.S. Presidential 2020 race. Naturally, once news broke that he’ll be running, Maltese citizens showed their support for Mayor Pete, passing on warm wishes as if he's their new-found BFF.
The Daily Beast picked up on our behaviour and dove right into the subject. According to Barbie Latza Nadeau, the writer of the piece, us Maltese are “already making plans for what they will do if their favourite son’s son, Pete Buttigieg, is elected as the next U.S. president.”
And to make things REALLY official, earlier this year Malta's Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, also endorsed Buttigieg’s candidacy with a post on Twitter, in which he said "Proud to call you a friend."
Local florist, Maria Cutajar, eagerly said, “We will hold a parade for sure. It would be amazing to have a Maltese in the White House.”
In view of Buttigieg's sexuality, as a gay man running for President, The Daily Beast's Barbie also lauded Malta's progressive stance on gay rights, saying “The island nation is leap years ahead of the rest of Europe in terms of gay marriage rights and same sex adoption rights."
The writer (obvs) highlights the struggle with pronouncing the mayor's surname, Buttigieg. The ending ‘tigieg’ actually means ‘poultry’ in Maltese, and this particular surname is possibly one of the most common ones on the island. And just for the record, it’s not butt-edge-edge, it’s butt-idge-iiidge.
Mayor Pete has visited the island before to see five of his eight aunts and uncles who live here. Who knows, maybe he’ll plan a trip here some time soon! We’ll definitely welcome him with open arms.