NEWS | Wednesday, 10 June 2009

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Matthew Vella
The European Parliament elections were not as bad as the Nationalists expected. They were worse.
And for Labour, it was almost a dream come true – electing its favourite candidates to Brussels, along with one particular candidate: a self-declared “son of a worker”, as Joseph Cuschieri proudly states to emphasis his roots.
Cuschieri is the product of a sympathy vote from Labour voters. The former MP, always elected on a bye-election thanks to the vacation of a seat by heavyweight Evarist Bartolo, sacrificed his own parliamentary seat for the co-option of Joseph Muscat into parliament. In return, he was given an MEP candidature, and will now become the beneficiary of a €7,000 monthly salary.
Labour’s campaign managed to prize its popular star candidates. There is no doubt that the party machine was squarely behind its only decent incumbent, Louis Grech, the former Air Malta chairman who, unlike his colleagues, seemed more adept at pressing the right buttons, literally.
One surprise is John Attard-Montalto. The MEP had made a fatal mistake in voting ‘incorrectly’ on the Working Time Directive, the law whose guarantee of unlimited overtime is supported by unions and employers alike in Malta. A two-month holiday cruise at the start of his tenure rendered him an object of mirth for allowing himself such an indulgence. And yet he managed to pip Marlene Mizzi, the former Sea Malta chairman, to retain his seat. The end of Claudette Abela Baldacchino’s run saw the mass of her votes going to Attard-Montalto.
Glenn Bedingfield on the other hand, was rendered ineffectual by his short stay in Brussels, having had too little time to make an impact.
But Louis Grech will be joined by the impressive Edward Scicluna, the economist whose sudden ‘switch’ to Labour delivered the expected results, a veritable vote count of over 30,000. Labour voters responded to the ‘professur’ joining their ranks, and Scicluna gave the party a moderate face that could appeal to middle-of the-road voters.
Considering this line-up, Labour’s other MEP Joseph Cuschieri stands out like a sore thumb.
Cuschieri’s election is nothing but the manifestation of Labour’s dependence on its grassroots core. It is this wide base of loyalists that prized people like Cuschieri, or saw the bulk of votes transferred from Abela Baldacchino to Attard-Montalto, rather than the sophisticated and articulate Marlene Mizzi.
When Muscat was elected Labour leader, party delegates sought to counter-balance the novelty of this young, self-declared ‘progressive’ and image-conscious leader with two deputy leaders from the old school, Anglu Farrugia and Toni Abela – working class politicians more inclined towards substance than surface.
Muscat was unable to push people ‘like himself’, such as Labour MP Chris Cardona, to the deputy leadership. He was also unable to rid himself of unpopular figures like Jason Micallef, the secretary-general blamed for Labour’s defeat in 2008, who openly supported his bid for leader.
Likewise, he was unable to prevent the lacklustre Cuschieri from getting the massive sympathy vote that won him his Brussels’ post. Surely, he would have preferred having Mizzi in Brussels, a woman far more accomplished than Cuschieri.
Despite the four seats in his pocket, Muscat’s party machine failed to produce the dream team he required. Mizzi is out, and Attard-Montalto has made it by the skin of his teeth. What’s more, Cuschieri has made it too. Hopefully, with Grech, Scicluna and Attard-Montalto towering above him, he is unlikely to press the wrong buttons in Brussels.

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