Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1517916
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 MARCH 2024 NEWS KARL AZZOPARDI kazzopardi@mediatoday.com.mt THE European Parliament elec- tion tops the Labour Party's agen- da for now but another important date looms on the horizon. In January of this year, fol- lowing a surprise reshuffle, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced that Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne will be Malta's nominee for European Commissioner. Should Fearne's nomination be approved by the European Parliament after the June elec- tions, it would mean that after the summer the Labour Party would have to elect a new dep- uty leader for parliamentary affairs. Labour insiders speaking to MaltaToday said jockeying for the post has already start- ed among party delegates and locality committees. Sources said Education Minister Clift- on Grima, Economy Minister Silvio Schembri and Justice Minister Jonathan Attard have made their interest in the post known to aides. Foreign Af- fairs Minister Ian Borg may al- so consider a run for the post, they added. The PL statute states that on- ly MPs can contest the post of deputy leader parliamentary affairs and the vote will be held among delegates of the gener- al conference. The winner will have to obtain 50%+1 of the votes and if none of the con- testants obtains such a result, the top two will take part in a runoff. Sources within the party say Robert Abela will push for a trusted confidant for the post, but Labour's history suggests the leader's favourite does not always clinch the deputy lead- ership. Fearne was elected deputy leader in the summer of 2017 having been the dark horse in a three-way race with Hele- na Dalli and Edward Scicluna for the post vacated by Lou- is Grech. Dalli was touted as former leader Joseph Muscat's favourite, with Scicluna also being regarded as acceptable to the former PM, but it was Fearne who secured the dele- gate's vote. Since the start of the year, Sil- vio Schembri and Jonathan At- tard have been given more vis- ibility by the Prime Minister. Schembri was reassigned the economy portfolio in January's reshuffle and piloted the food price stability scheme that has helped to dampen inflationary pressure. Attard was also given the portfolio responsible for re- forms in the construction sec- tor and along with Schembri and Byron Camilleri forms part of an inter-ministerial commit- tee tasked to implement the recommendations of the Jean Paul Sofia public inquiry. Grima retained the education and sports portfolio in Janu- ary's reshuffle and is currently locked in protracted talks with the MUT over a new collective agreement for educators. Four ministers eye Labour's deputy post Clockwise from top left: Ian Borg, Silvio Schembri, Clifton Grima and Jonathan Attard CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 No such condition had been made in January when Abela said Cutajar had paid her dues after being forced to resign last year. Cutajar remained an inde- pendent MP but her possible return to the PL remains un- certain. Sources in Cutajar's Qormi constituency said the PM's comments did not go down well and described this as "an- other case of Robert Abela shifting the goalposts". The sources said Abela's original demands for Cuta- jar's return to the parliamen- tary group were two-fold: She writes to the party's executive explicitly asking them to be al- lowed back into the parliamen- tary group, and that she drops her defamation proceedings in court against Mark Camilleri, who published the chats on his blog. "She did both of those things, and now out of nowhere, she is faced with another demand from his end," a source close to the MP who spoke to this newspaper said. "She is fuming and rightly so." A minister speaking anony- mously said Abela's new apolo- gy demand was never raised in any Cabinet or parliamentary group meeting. "I and most of the parliamen- tary group learned of Robert Abela's demand for an apology through the media. It came as a surprise to us," the minister said, describing the demand as "demeaning and patronising." "I mean, yes, she made a mis- take, and I agree that what she did was wrong, but let's be real- istic, others before her and af- ter her have done much worse, and they only got a slap on the wrist," the minister said. "He cannot continue humiliating her like this." Another source close to the Labour Party said the move has done little to reignite grassroot support in Cutajar's home dis- trict. "People from outside the party will say that he absolved her for her 'sins', while people from inside the party will say that he has, once again, gone back on his word," the source said. Cutajar was forced to re- sign from the parliamenta- ry group in April 2023 in the wake of mounting criticism after the publication of leaked WhatsApp exchanges between Cutajar and Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect Yorgen Fenech from 2019. In one exchange, Cutajar told Fenech – then not yet charged with the journalist's assassina- tion – that she would seek a paid consultancy with the In- stitute for Tourism Studies to emulate 'everyone else pigging at the trough' – ostensibly a reference to others in the PL. Cutajar had resigned as par- liamentary secretary before the 2022 election pending an ethics probe over the receipt of bro- kerage fees from a property sale involving Fenech. She subse- quently contested the election and was elected but forced to resign from the PL last year. Her ITS consultancy job was slammed by the National Au- dit Office after an investigation concluded the consultancy was "illegitimate" and had breached regulations. Robert Abela has publicly demanded an apology from Rosianne Cutajar to be admitted back to the Labour Party Rosianne Cutajar's return to the PL remains uncertain