The return of the political outcasts
Robert Abela’s opponents have claimed his backers include a cast of “desperate” former ministers and activists who are hoping that, under Abela’s leadership, they will revive their political and government careers. One could describe them as politicians “desperate” to return to the front line.
Dr Mark Said is a lawyer
It had already happened before. Minister Michael Falzon was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and Simplification of Administrative Processes. He resigned from his post on January 20, 2016, after a corruption scandal, known as the Gaffarena scandal, involving the Lands Department, which fell under his remit. Falzon was forced to resign after a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) concluded that there was collusion between government officials in the Lands Department and Gaffarena. After the snap election held in 2017, he was appointed as Minister for Family, Children’s Rights and Social Solidarity.
Many people have been sacked or, to use the mafia term, have had “love withdrawn” by Castille, who now see their chance to get back into office through Robert Abela. In the leading roles are Rosianne Cutajar and Justyne Caruana.
The former was moved out of cabinet in 2020 after it was revealed that she had benefited from a property deal involving Yorgen Fenech, who faces charges of complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Following that, the National Audit Office concluded that an ITS consultancy job she told Fenech about in leaked chats was “fraudulent” and “irregular”.
Still, Robert Abela believes she has paid a high enough political price, and it is time for her position to be “reconsidered”.
Justyne Caruana, on the other hand, resigned from her post as Gozo minister in 2020 after it was revealed that her then-husband, former deputy police commissioner Silvio Valletta, was close to alleged Caruana Galizia murder accomplice Yorgen Fenech and had gone abroad on holiday with him. Caruana was brought back to the cabinet in November of that same year and handed the education portfolio. At the time, Prime Minister Robert Abela justified the move by saying “She’s capable, and she deserves it.”
Following that, she resigned as education minister in 2021 following a job-for-a-friend scandal, the second time she had to step down from cabinet.
Can it be excluded that, eventually, the likes of Joseph Muscat, Chris Cardona, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi will follow suit?
Mind you, such overtones can also be detected within the PN.
In 2021, the opposition leader stated that he was willing to work with anyone who might have left the party in recent years, insisting that he would explore relationships with former members. He clearly had Franco Debono in mind.
Debono served as a PN MP in the 2008–2013 legislature but ended that term after a series of clashes with then-party leader Lawrence Gonzi and then-Home
Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici over constitutional and justice reforms. At the end of 2012, he voted with the thenLabour opposition against the budget, effectively bringing down the government a few months before a general election was due.
He was one of three people that the PN barred from contesting the 2013 general election on its ticket, and he has not contested an election since then.
Politics is often a numbers game, and garnering the support of influential figures can be crucial to winning elections. The return of political outcasts can be met with widespread celebration and acceptance within a party. In particular circumstances, it can be met with resistance and exclusion by some members of the party.
It stands to reason that both the PN and Labour Party are weighing the risks of further fragmenting their base and weakening their chances of success in any upcoming election. The party leadership will take steps to address these issues and ensure that all members are given the space and support needed to make a meaningful contribution to the party’s efforts.
But what happens when political outcasts whose political and personal ambitions were inordinate and who were prepared to go to any extent and employ any weapon, no matter how dastardly or devilish, to achieve their objectives are welcomed back into the party fold? What can happen if they are treated as the new ‘darlings’ and new chapters appear to open for them to play another prominent role in Maltese politics?
Will it be like a homecoming, with everyone slipping into familiar roles, scattering into their old cliques, bantering and reminiscing about their previous foray into politics?
It will be like watching a longdistance race, and as the runners get to approach the final furlong, we see them faltering, but, worst of all, the front runner will be seen to be running backward, and the wild card comes in to clinch it. This is what might happen to the two main parties at the moment. It is surreal to watch once glorious parties being reduced to a state of paralysis by an inglorious mob.
They risk ending up in a drunken stupor of power disenchantment, failing to recognise that their very actions might destroy the party itself.
Political outcasts might be hated by many today, but a good many of those would have been their most ardent supporters. They will be back after climbing out of one of the deepest pits Maltese politicians have ever dug for themselves. Political exile is no place for them to remain.
Will our political outcasts, authors of spectacular blunders, overcome it all and reach the peak?
Time will tell.