A tumultuous MLP national executive meeting held on Monday night discussed none other than Alfred Grixti’s interview with sister newspaper Illum and other comments given last week to MaltaToday Midweek.
Reliable sources within the Labour Party confirmed that MLP general secretary Jason Micallef lashed out at Grixti’s comments, accusing him of being in breach of a national executive ruling.
During the first national executive meeting right after the general election it was stipulated that no member of the national executive could publicly criticise the MLP election defeat.
Last Sunday, Alfred Grixti – who will be challenging Jason Micallef for the seat of general secretary – told Illum that he “did not know who the strategy team behind the MLP campaign was,” and claimed that the Labour team did not have high-powered people in organisational skills.
In last Wednesday’s MaltaToday Midweek, Grixti went as far as to state: “Alfred Sant was a man up to his job. Whilst Lawrence Gonzi had Joe Saliba behind him, Alfred Sant did not have a person of the same calibre.”
These comments and others irked Jason Micallef, who allegedly rebutted Alfred Grixti’s comments during Monday’s meeting. Reportedly, Micallef was backed up by senior Labour MPs, including Charles Mangion and George Vella.
This paper can confirm that the turbulent meeting, which kicked off at 7.30pm and dragged on till around 12.30am on Tuesday, was called on the same day without prior notice.
The same sources maintained that at one point, Micallef declared that he never knew that Alfred Grixti was “the brains behind the reception class proposal”: clearly referring to Grixti’s comments in Illum, where he declared that he was one of Carmelo Abela’s advisors during the electoral campaign. During the same interview Alfred Grixti stated that when the PN launched its attack on the reception class proposal, the Labour Party did not react immediately.
“We had all the answers. If we reacted immediately we would have killed the issue straight away. There should have been someone involved directly in campaigning. As far as I’m informed, this did not exist. If it was not there in the educational sector I don’t think it existed in other sectors,” was Alfred Grixti’s comment. Attempts to reach both Jason Micallef and Alfred Grixti yesterday proved futile.
Tuesday’s MLP national executive meeting also discussed the terms of reference for the leadership bid.