Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1008890
16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 JULY 2018 INTERVIEW My first question may be a little superficial: but how are you feeling, a few days after the publication of the Egrant inquiry findings? I am very calm. I try to keep very calm, but once again it's like revisiting the nightmare. Because obviously you start remembering those days when, at the very be- ginning, I thought it was some- thing like a joke... something I could laugh off... but then you realise it was very serious. And now I realise how much more se- rious it really was. I never imag- ined it would be serious enough to change the landscape in this country... The saga began 15 months ago. How did you cope with the situation before Sunday? Did it affect your routine... did you feel you had to 'switch off' to avoid confronting the issue? I never stopped my daily rou- tine: I woke up in the morning, took the children to school, went for training... It was April [when the allegation first surfaced]; at the time I was at the peak of train- ing for my third swim, which was 10km long. So, I was going for training every day. It was some- thing you might think I wouldn't do, but for me, at that point, this was all so... it was something you worried about, because for the people, this was obviously a big story. But for me, because I knew that I had done nothing wrong... I was calm. What did you tell people who were sceptical? In truth, the people who sur- rounded us, who were close to us, always knew it wasn't true. And the people who really know us, knew from the start that it wasn't true... There could be an element of loyalty in that, however... No, it wasn't just loyalty... we live our lives surrounded by peo- ple, who work with us, who are our friends... they know how we live. They know we live a very normal life; we have two children who are growing up; we face all the usual challenges of family life. We try as much as possible to keep things normal at home. There are things we do our- selves, instead of hiring people to do them for us. It doesn't mean we don't have help; but no more help than any other couple who both work. We live a very normal life. We try to bring up our chil- dren in a normal environment. Sooner or later they will have to fend for themselves. Their father will not be Prime Minis- ter forever. But for other people – maybe even you – who have built up a distorted image of us in their minds... an image of me that is based on the character of a novel, or a film: those people will not be seeing 'you'. They will see what they think you are. And yet I lead a normal life: I am not the 'diva' they have portrayed me to be in these past 10 years. And the people who live and work with us know this. You are, however, a public person: the wife of the Prime Minister, and before that, of the Opposition leader. Was this media focus something you expected all along... or did it turn out to be more than you bargained for? Ten years ago, when my hus- band became leader of the La- bour Party, there were two fo- cuses: one from the party itself, in the sense that, for the first time, the party leader had a wife. For [Labour supporters], this was a big thing: because one of the issues with previous lead- ers was that there was never any female presence in the leader- ship. And the PN used to use this very point to project itself as being very 'family-oriented'; to stress how beautiful family life is... that you have a wife to sup- port her husband; to do things which show her husband in a good light... Labour, on the other hand, never had 'the wife of a leader'. So even from the party it- self, I had... not to say 'demands', but people were excited... [...] If there was an event, for example, I was expected to attend. On the other hand, the wife of the previ- ous prime minister [Kate Gonzi] was very active; she did a lot of philanthropic work... and every- one used to praise her. She gave a lot of interviews in magazines; she'd be on the front page of magazines distributed by certain media houses. She had her own budgets, to go abroad with cam- era crews and do her work... and nobody said anything. Nobody ever criticised her; on the con- trary, they would portray her as though, 'that's the way to do it'. Do you think the antipathy shown towards you, but not towards others, was the result of political prejudice? Yes. It was political prejudice. Other people could do those things, but not me. Now, what was the difference? I was 40 years old; others were 60. I might have the energy of a 40-year-old; and in one day I'd do eight differ- ent things. Someone else might have done four... which would also have been a lot of work. But, for instance, a few weeks after my husband became party leader, I was interviewed by The Times. They invited me, and as I had seen so many interviews with others... I didn't see any- thing wrong in doing that inter- view. So, we did the interview; I was very 'myself'; and then, out comes someone prominent [in the media], who writes each week, saying: 'Now that Michelle Muscat has decided to put her toes in the water, she shouldn't be surprised if her toes are bitten off.' Something like that. Maybe not the exact words, but that was the idea. [Pause] Today, I say that those words were the beginning of the attack. An attack that has lasted 10 years... Now that the Egrant inquiry has vindicated you, and established that neither you nor anyone in your family was connected with that company: do you feel it time to 'ride the wave', as the expression goes? I always rode the wave. For the moment, I am still taking stock of the situation. I will take my time, and then we'll see. But this attack did not come about because of any disaster [caused by us]; this attack came about because [...] they underestimated us. In the first five years, they thought we'd never make it. They thought we'd never win. They still at- tacked us: if I went here, if I went there... and yet [...] I always kept to my station of the time. If I was the Opposition leader's wife, I didn't play the part of the wife of the prime minister. I never inter- fered, I never put myself forward. I always kept my place. But I was consistent. [...] I always main- tained my role according to my position. Why am I saying this? Because I did nothing special. I did nothing spectacular. I did nothing that wasn't done by my predecessors, and nothing that those who come after me will not also do. Turning to the Egrant allegation: when it was first made, Joseph Muscat called for a magisterial inquiry. Were you convinced, at the time, that that It has been a long 15 months for MICHELLE MUSCAT, the Prime Minister's wife at the centre of the Egrant inquiry concluded on Sunday. She tells Saviour Balzan what it was like to be in the eye of the storm Revisiting the nightmare Saviour Balzan sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt When I heard the news about what happened to her, I think I was more sorry than her own family. Her family could go on to make her a saint; but at the time I said to myself: 'Now I will have to live with her lies'