Joseph Muscat finds no candidates for secretary-general.
So he ‘tells’ the Labour executive committee: either abolish the post...or he presents the motion himself to the party conference.
Everyone votes in favour.
And then they remove his ‘threat’ from the meeting’s minutes.
MaltaToday last Wednesday revealed how the post would be removed when Muscat’s favoured man for the job, lawyer Edward Zammit Lewis, decided to forgo his candidature just after a few weeks into his grooming for the post.
Zammit Lewis has since decided to stand for election on the eighth district.
Faced with Muscat’s fait accompli, the 27 attending members voted unanimously to abolish the post of secretary-general – an administrative and political role in place since 1977 – fearing that any opposition would backfire on them.
Several members who attended the meeting said they were “disgusted” at the way Muscat had bulldozed the motion to ensure full compliance with his reorganisation of the party.
“None of us are that stupid to object to such a motion. It would have been our end. The leader is everything in this party. But this is far too much,” an insider commented.
Adding further to the furtiveness of the motion, at the end of the meeting Zebbug mayor Alfred Grixti suggested that Muscat’s threatening comment that he would push the motion in the general conference if the executive did not approve it, be removed from the meeting’s minutes.
Grixti said that in this way “events taking place in the national executive would not reach the media.”
Muscat’s problems The secretary-general’s post was thrown into turmoil after Muscat handpicked a party CEO, James Piscopo, to take over the day-to-day running of the party.
His move was intended to weaken the power held by secretary-general Jason Micallef, who did not resign after the 2008 general election loss.
Instead, he was re-elected to the position, shortly after Muscat’s election as party leader. The young leader, unwilling to publicly endorse a favoured candidate, left party delegates no choice but to return Micallef to the post.
But Micallef and Piscopo’s overlapping roles led to stormy arguments between the two inside the party headquarters.
Muscat was left with no choice but to offer Micallef the way out by installing him as chairman of One TV, and putting Labour president Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi as acting secretary-general until the January 2010 general conference.
So it was no surprise that on Monday’s executive meeting, delivering the eulogy on the motion was eurosceptic Joe Zrinzo – the father of Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi. Zrinzo knows that once the post of secretary-general is abolished, his son will increase his power base as party president.
Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi remains one of Muscat’s favourites, despite his formative years inside the pro-Nationalist SDM (Studenti Demokristjani Maltin). A close associate of Labour MP and former leadership aspirant Michael Falzon, he still played a very central role in the last election campaign together with Alfred Sant. But he emerged relatively unscathed by the backlash that was largely visited upon Jason Micallef.
No contestest The PL yesterday announced that no position in its administration would be contested, meaning incumbents Zrinzo Azzopardi, Louis Gatt, Ray Azzopardi and Alex Sceberras Trigona will be reconfirmed in their roles.
Two new positions are expected to be created: an equal opportunities coordinator, and a local committees coordinator.
The conference will also elect 12 members to the national executive. 17 candidates will run for seats on the committee, namely:
Frans Agius, Mario Azzopardi, Jonathan Brimmer, Gerlene Camilleri, Maria Camilleri, Krista Caruana, Guza Cassar, Nettu Farrugia, Alfred Grixti, Brian Hansford, Stanley Mifsud, Alexander Muscat, Alex Sciberras, Salvu Seychell, Antoinette Vassallo, Nikita Zammit Alamango, and Alison Zerafa.
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