Joseph Muscat’s secret strategy of “disengagement” was unexpectedly put into peril this week when his MEPs were caught off-guard by a Spanish socialist MEP who quizzed Louis Galea over the squandering of funds inside the Auxiliary Workers Training Scheme and the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools.
Galea, nominated by Lawrence Gonzi to the European Court of Auditors, faced a grilling by Inés Ayala Sender on a MaltaToday report into investigations by the Permanent Commission Against Corruption, the Auditor General and a magisterial inquiry into allegations of favouritism and corruption.
Present during the hearing were Labour MEPs Edward Scicluna and Louis Grech, who were caught off-guard by Ayala’s questions, after they were briefed at Mile End not to raise any embarrassing questions on the mismanagement of funds at the Auxiliary Workers scheme and the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools. Ayala’s questions were intended as retaliation over embarrassing questions made to the Czech nominee for commissioner, socialist Stefan Fule, over his diplomatic training at a Russian institute linked to the KGB, the former Soviet secret service.
“A truce between the socialists and conservatives not to embarrass each other’s candidates for the EU posts was broken after Fule was questioned over the KGB connection, so Galea was asked about his past as minister,” a Labour source told MaltaToday.
In both the AWTS and FTS inquiries, no proof of wrongdoing on Louis Galea’s part was ever proven, although overwhelming evidence proved the involvement of individuals close to Galea, and of millions in euros in direct orders benefiting his constituents, including his driver and several canvassers.
But Muscat has steered clear of attacking Galea, the outgoing Speaker of the House.
While his predecessor Alfred Sant and the Labur media turned the AWTS and FTS scandals into political issues, Muscat chose not to engage in this similar tactic when Galea was – somewhat ironically – nominated to the EU’s auditors’ court.
Muscat’s same “disengagement” strategy has also been used in the case of John Dalli, when appointed European Commissioner; MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, and former minister Jesmond Mugliett.
“With all three Nationalist heavyweights having embarrassed Lawrence Gonzi with their outspoken comments, Muscat insisted with his party that they should be treated with kid gloves,” the Labour source said.
As Opposition leader, Alfred Sant put in great store when lashing out at Dalli on his involvement in the Daewoo financial scandal, and later when accusing him of using his ministerial influence to direct the Iranian national shipping line IRISL to choose his son-in-law as their Maltese agent.
Sant also spearheaded a relentless campaign on Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s rental of his land in Mistra, a protects area, for the creation of an open-air disco; and against former transport minister Jesmon Mugliett, on the scandal-ridden transport authority.
But since becoming leader, Muscat has discontinued these political campaigns, and focused on new issues such as the €200 million Delimara extension, currently under investigation by the Auditor General.
“Muscat is conscious of the fact that Labour has little chance of transmitting its message to the public with most of the printed media and TV stations antagonistic towards the PL. So he prefers to wait for Gonzi to make a political mistake or fail on delivering,” the source said.
Muscat is described as being so conditioned by this media bias, that he insists on Labour lying low and avoid confrontation. “He knows his fortunes are intrinsically linked to the dysfunctional Gonzi administration,” the source said.
This resolve was strengthened recently when TV clips of the unions’ demonstration on the energy tariffs focused on unrefined characters passing unwarranted comments against the Prime Minister, resulting in a backlash against Muscat who participated in the demo.
Coupled with his disengagement from confrontation, Muscat is also pushing colleagues who like him are “young, moderate, and distant from the past”.
“He is investing heavily in people like Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi and Edward Zammit Lewis, and even encouraged the party machinery to make use of such soft-spoken personalities as opposed to ‘hardened militants’ who remind floaters and disgruntled Nationalists of Labour’s beleaguered past,” the source said.
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