Labour leader Joseph Muscat marked his entry into Parliament by holding celebrations at none other than Charles Polidano’s wine vaults yesterday night.
The building magnate, speculator and mega contractor is no longer the Opposition’s persona non grata, as amply shown by Muscat’s choice of venue yesterday.
The party at Montekristo Wine Vaults, property of Polidano Brothers, was organised by Forum Zghazagh Laburisti – the Labour youths’ organisation – despite years of attacks by the party media on Polidano.
But not all politicians in the Labour party have been keen to hit out at Polidano. In the recent weeks some senior Labour politicians have been seen at Caqnu’s offices at Hal Farrug. Muscat’s decision to attend the event at the Montekristo vineyard is indicative of the 34-year-old’s predisposition to get closer to big business and forget past skirmishes. Forum Zghazagh Laburisti President Daniel Micallef defended the decision to hold the event tat Polidano’s vineyards after the party had consistently hit out at the construction magnate.
“I have nothing against the use of this place, after all it is being used as a commercial place. This does not mean the Labour party will not criticise Polidano if need be,” he said.
When asked if the Forum would be paying for renting the premises, Micallef told MaltaToday that they would be using the place on a commercial basis. Asked repeatedly if he would provide a VAT receipt of payment to Charles Polidano, Micallef was evasive and continued to reply that the Forum would be using the place “commercially”.
On his part, Labour secretary-general Jason Micallef told MaltaToday yesterday that Montekristo Wine Vaults “was not chosen because it is owned by ic-Caqnu.”
“It is a commercial entity in which activities are organised on a regular basis and this activity is taking place in a complex where a lot of activities have been organised like today’s, both by political parties as well as individuals on a commercial basis.”
Asked whether he felt politically uncomfortable at the fact that this activity was being organised at a venue owned by Charles Polidano, who the Labour Party has criticised so much in the past, Micallef told MaltaToday: “This is not a matter of feeling uncomfortable or not.
“There are all the permits according to the law at the venue where we held the activity and you should not feel uncomfortable that the activity is being organised at a venue which owned by Peter or Paul,” he insisted.
“If you had to apply this all the time – and I ask you to quote me verbatim – and look at the ownership of all the hotels, you would end up organising it nowhere. I can’t understand what this story is about!” Micallef said.
Pressed further about the matter, Micallef seemed oblivious to the political insensitivity of the decision among floating voters.
“Therefore if the property is owned by ic-Caqnu, and the Labour Party decided to organise an activity there, we should be precluded from organising this activity there because it is owner by ic-Caqnu?
“The fact that we criticised ic-Caqnu in the past shows that nothing prevented us from criticising ic-Caqnu, neither in the present nor in the future, if there are things on which we should criticise him and all other contractors if we need to,” Micallef told MaltaToday.
Meanwhile yeserday night, the party released a letter by Joseph Cuschieri dated 19 September, announcing that he was renouncing his parliamentary seat for Muscat’s co-option. Muscat’s letter of reply accepting the offer carries yesterday’s date – the same day he announced his entry into parliament.
The party did not release any details of a financial agreement believed to have been reached with Cuschieri prior to his departure from parliament, which was his only source of income.