Robert Abela has accused unnamed individuals in his parliamentary group of undermining the Labour Party’s electoral chances so that he could be blamed for the defeat.
The Prime Minister sounded the warning during a meeting held last Thursday in the aftermath of Clayton Bartolo’s resignation from Cabinet and the PL parliamentary group.
“If anyone of you wants to spite me and lose the election so that afterwards you blame me for it, tell me so that I can step down because I do not want to see the Labour Party back in opposition,” Abela told Labour MPs during the meeting.
Abela’s warning was leaked to Nationalist Party MP Alex Borg, who posted the direct quote on his Facebook wall shortly after the meeting.
MaltaToday has independently confirmed that those words were spoken by the Prime Minister in what was described as an “intense” meeting of the parliamentary group.
This newspaper has asked the Prime Minister why he felt the need to make such a statement but questions sent to his office remained unanswered by the time of writing.
Several members of the parliamentary group who were granted anonymity to be able to speak about confidential matters told MaltaToday Abela’s words reflected the growing unease among MPs with the Prime Minister’s leadership style.
“You cannot have a Prime Minister who is unable to take tough decisions or is constantly changing his mind,” an MP said, adding that the Clayton Bartolo affair should have been dealt with decisively when the Standards Commissioner’s report was published.
“Instead, the issue was allowed to drag on for three whole weeks until the Prime Minister found the pretext to force Clayton out but not Clint [Camilleri],” the MP added.
Another MP said the Prime Minister and those closest to him in Castille feel under siege. “Any criticism is interpreted as an attack, which is why Robert Abela’s words did not surprise me because he is realising that nobody is happy with him,” the MP told MaltaToday.
But a third MP suggested the Prime Minister had his hands tied on the Bartolo affair because three years prior the Office of the Prime Minister had already been privy to the engagement of Bartolo’s now wife, Amanda Muscat, as a consultant.
“If the Prime Minister had consented to the consultancy back then; knew of Amanda’s transfer to the Gozo Ministry; and claims to have terminated her job himself in 2021; how could he cut both ministers loose in the aftermath of the Standards Commissioner’s findings?”
Bartolo resigned from minister and the PL parliamentary group last Tuesday over an alleged case of bribery involving his wife, Amanda Muscat, that had nothing to do with the ethics breach identified by the Standards Commissioner. It appears to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The Financial Intelligence and Analysis Unit is reported to have flagged suspicious transactions worth €50,000 that Muscat received from a company linked to a former Italian cyclist who was given a contract by the Malta Tourism Authority last year. The FIAU passed on the information to the police for further investigation on suspicion the funds were a kickback.
Until the new revelations were out, the Prime Minister had been pushing back against calls for the resignations of Bartolo and Camilleri. The Standards Commissioner had found they abused their power when employing Muscat as a consultant, a job she was not qualified for and which she did not perform.
Parliament’s ethics committee decided last week to reprimand both politicians and in Bartolo’s case, make an apology in the House and refund the extra money paid to Muscat.
Abela continues to insist Camilleri should not resign and the reprimand by parliament’s ethics committee should suffice in his regard.
Calls for Camilleri’s resignation persist and the Nationalist Party will be holding a second protest outside parliament on Monday evening.
But a fourth Labour MP was sympathetic with Camilleri’s position, suggesting it would be unfair on him to shoulder the ultimate burden for something he was dragged into.
“The way Clayton [Bartolo] was made to resign following the second case was clearly intended to save Clint Camilleri’s skin, who ended up embroiled in the ethics scandal because of someone else’s bidding,” the person said of the Prime Minister’s justification to accept Bartolo’s resignation and not ask for Camilleri’s. That someone else is very likely to be Abela.
Clayton affair killed the budget’s positive vibes: ‘We have become a joke’
Another MP expressed plain disillusionment over the current state of the government: “The Clayton affair killed the positive vibes we were expecting from a good budget. But scandals like these are made worse when there is a lack of leadership. It seems anything positive the government works on is simply not having an impact on a disillusioned electorate. We have become a joke.”
Within Labour circles there has been a constant hum of discontent over the Prime Minister’s handling of embarrassing crises, especially his flip-flopping on decisions.
Many Labour MPs still feel jilted over the way the Jean Paul Sofia affair was dealt with in 2023 when they were made to vote against a public inquiry in parliament only to have the Prime Minister perform a complete U-turn 48 hours later.
“The Jean Paul Sofia case has made us wary of sticking our necks out too far in defending controversial decisions taken by the Prime Minister because we fear there could be a change of heart at the top that leaves us looking like fools in front of the electorate,” another MP told MaltaToday, adding this was the reason nobody was comfortable to publicly defend the decisions taken in the Bartolo affair.
Source: politics.einnews.com…
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