Emmanuel Micallef, the former Deputy Secretary General of the General Workers’ Union who was acrimoniously ousted two years ago by Tony Zarb’s “militant” faction in a fiery election, has been approached by the Malta Labour Party to present a programme on its media.
Practically ostracised by the union and the Labour-leaning press for the last couple of years as he basked in the Nationalist media limelight, Micallef was asked by a high-ranking party official a few weeks ago to be on the Super One schedule of programmes.
Micallef confirmed with MaltaToday that he was contacted by a Labour Party official. He said he would be willing to host a programme on the Labour media although it depended on the editorial freedom he would have.
“I was told they wanted me to do some programme on Super One,” Micallef said. “We didn’t go into the kind of programme they wanted me to do or whether it would be on television or radio. My reply was that it depended on the kind of programme they want, but I would have no objection whatsoever holding a programme on Super One. I just don’t want anyone to use me. My name is Emmanuel but I’m not Manwel Cuschieri. We ended agreeing they would get back to me with a specific proposal.”
Micallef also raised the issue with the MLP official that the union might not quite like the idea.
“I was told that would be the union’s problem and not to worry about it,” Micallef said.
Considered the bête noir of the “left” since his exile from the Workers’ Memorial Building, Micallef has been hosting discussion radio programmes on Radju Malta and RTK and held newspaper analysis on TVM programmes, besides writing columns as an independent analyst. He has also appeared repeatedly on Net TV programmes and chaired one of the PN’s workshops in its last general council.