Alfred Sant made an unexpected return to the Mile End headquarters on Monday night, when, to the surprise of Labour MPs, he chaired the first MLP parliamentary group meeting since the general election.
During this meeting several issues were discussed, including Sant’s own suggestion that all the previous legislature’s shadow ministers should retain their roles as spokespersons for their respective field until a new party leader is elected in June. This way, the incoming MLP leader will not find himself bound by any decisions taken by a former party leader. This suggestion received the backing of the MLP parliamentary group.
But just a few minutes into the meeting, the present members were to witness another surprise occurrence, when a livid Joe Debono Grech started shouting at Alfred Sant before storming out of the meeting.
Sources close to the MLP headquarters confirmed that Alfred Sant had just finished reading out a letter sent to him earlier by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, regarding possible agreements on the pairing issue, when the Birkirkara MP flared up.
The discussion on the paper had not even started when at one point Joe Debono Grech stood up and said “are we going to start licking their boots? (‘se nibdew nilaghqu?’)”, sources said.
But Debono Grech did not wait for a reply, and instead turned on his heel, walked out of the meeting and did not come out.