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2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 DECEMBER 2019 NEWS Christmas specials • Politics Muscat's exit: from glory of victory to disgrace MUSCAT had a plan. A glori- ous exit from politics after 10 years in power and winning every electoral appointment. Yet although still undefeated in the polls, Muscat now finds himself humiliated, aban- doned by his socialist allies in Europe, 'betrayed' by his for- mer chief of staff, and leaving behind him a dark cloud hang- ing on the office he served: a far more inglorious exit than being beaten at the polls. Adding insult to injury is the fact that his disgraced former chief of staff Keith Schembri, while walking to court to tes- tify, claims credit for winning the Labour party 10 consecu- tive elections. Few would have foreseen this happening a year ago. Sure enough the country was rocked by the revelation in November 2018 that the mys- terious Dubai offshore compa- ny 17 Black, listed as a 'target client' for Keith Schembri's and Konrad Mizzi's Panama companies, belonged to Yor- gen Fenech, the scion of the Tumas Group and a share- holder in the Electrogas power station, now accused of being the mastermind of the assas- sination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. That scandal had little im- pact on public opinion, and it was Adrian Delia, not Mus- cat, who faced internal party turmoil. It seemed that after 2017 the country had been immunised to corruption alle- gations, possibly thanks to the unproven Egrant allegations which were weaponised by the same Muscat to secure his second consecutive electoral victory with yet another un- precedented majority of votes. The first months of 2019 saw Muscat fighting on his pre- ferred terrain: electoral cam- paigning. In May he reached new heights, trouncing the PN with 58% of the vote in local elections, and Labour winning historic majorities in PN- leaning localities like Valletta and Mosta. His party also won four out of six seats and 54% of the vote in the European elections. The defeat left the PN in tatters with its leader facing a confidence vote. In that campaign he showed moments of statesmanship, particularly when he defend- ed the spirit of integration while speaking in Hamrun, in the wake of Lassana Cisse Souleymane's murder, openly challenging racism a few days before going to the polls in which the far-right scored its best result ever, possibly thanks to Muscat's toxic mix- ture of neoliberalism and cos- mopolitanism which is leaving the first signs of resentment. This sense of statesmanship was reflected in his leading role in coalitions of willing EU members to share responsi- bility over migrants rescued on the high seas, was not re- flected in his career moves. His ambitions pushed him to seek higher peaks than any other Maltese politician had dreamt of. To Brussels with a ticking time-bomb As recently as last June, he was actively entertaining the prospect of a top position in the European Union, possi- bly that of European Council president. Now we learn that while he was lobbying for himself to get this post, he was also car- rying a ticking time-bomb in his pocket, fully aware of the devastating consequences it would have had on his coun- try's reputation had Keith Schembri's buddy Yorgen Fenech been arrested while he was already occupying a top EU position. For it now emerges that Mus- cat had been aware of Yorgen Fenech as a potential suspect in Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder since May 2018, when he first authorised phone tap- ping by the Malta Security Service. Moreover, Yorgen Fenech had been outed as the owner of 17 Black since No- vember 2018. Muscat could have sacked Schembri and Mizzi back in 2016 but chose to keep them. That decision was wrong but understand- able from a pragmatic per- spective. But keeping them in office after Muscat knew that they had an offshore business relationship with a potential murderer, was unforgivable. Had Muscat been appointed to the EU post he would have had to resign, leaving Malta in disgrace and a pariah of the European Union. Ironically the PM who was so keen on serving in a top position in the EU, has now endured the humiliation of an overwhelming vote by the Eu- ropean Parliament asking the Brussels executive to enter into dialogue with Malta over rule of law failings and criti- cising his failure to step down immediately. The humiliation was greater because all social- ist MEPs voted against Mus- cat, himself a former socialist MEP who cultivated strong ties to leading figures like Martin Schulz, then President of the European Socialists, who in 2008 came to Malta to endorse Muscat's candidature for the leadership of his party. Signs of internal turmoil Despite his enduring popu- larity confirmed in the last European elections, for the first time in his political ca- reer Muscat started showing inexplicable signs of indeci- sion and physical signs of stress. He sent mixed messag- es on whether he was going to stay party leader or not, leav- ing potential candidates for the leadership uncertain on whether to set the campaign machine in motion or not. In hindsight his apprehen- sion may well have stemmed from his knowledge of the Daphne probe, and the prox- imity between his chief of staff and the suspect. The tension and turmoil within Muscat, who knew who was behind Caruana Galizia's assassina- tion, must have been palpable. He may well have thought that apprehending the mas- termind of the assassination, a powerful businessman, may have redeemed him. He could have used this to press the point that the institu- tions were working and that the case was solved on his watch. But he also knew that the proximity between Fenech and Schembri rendered the whole case toxic, especially in view of Schembri's access to sensitive information. The question remains: to what extent was Muscat, himself a close friend of Schembri, aware of the parallel friend- ship between Fenech and Schembri? It is this friendship triangle which gives new sig- nificance to Jeremy Boissev- ain's 'friends of friends' tag, which has rendered Muscat's position unredeemable. The meltdown In October he felt confident enough to quell speculations that this year's budget was his last one, making it clear that he had no intention of step- ping down in 2020. He even gave a formidable perfor- mance in his reply to the lead- er of the Opposition where he stood his ground in defence of cosmopolitanism and his eco- nomic model, even if opinion polls showed a small dent in his popularity following the Hal Far riots. Yet something was evidently happening on the investiga- tion front, with the US embas- Joseph Muscat carried an explosive secret all through 2019, even while entertaining the prospect of top EU office and keeping the Caruana Galizia assassination mastermind's buddy – his chief of staff – in office till the very end. What does this say about Muscat's legacy? JAMES DEBONO