Tonio Borg from Malta will after all be the new EU Commissioner for Health. His nomination has proved controversial because of his strict Catholic opposition to divorce, abortion and gay rights, and as a result the Spanish newspaper El País refers to him as el ‘halcón maltés’. That is the Spanish name of the film The Maltese Falcon. Why do they choose that nickname? Because Spanish halcón also means hawk and Borg has hawkish views on these subjects. The play on words doesn’t work in English.
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Maltese hawk |
Maltese falcon |
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