Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/823773
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 14 MAY 2017 8 JOSEPH MUSCAT The pushback card Just months after being elected to power and facing the first signs of disappointment on appointments betraying the Malta Tagh- na lkoll pledge, Joseph Muscat rallied public support by inviting Europe to "smell the cof- fee" and rounding up 45 migrants for depor- tation to Libya. The pushback was aborted after the Eu- ropean Court of Human Rights issued an interim order to block the planned push- back. In this way Muscat managed to satisfy expectations he fuelled before the election when he adopted a tougher line on immi- gration than Lawrence Gonzi, going as far as not excluding the pushback option when asked directly in a debate before the general election. But Muscat was aware of the wedge he had driven between his party and liberal opinion makers and his socialist partners in the European Parliament. His pushback move stirred support from the far-right and a wave of insults against EU commissioner Cecilia Malmström, which made Muscat uncomfortable inside the Union. Luckily for Muscat he found in Italy inter- locutors like Enrico Letta and Matteo Renzi (unlike Gonzi, whose interlocutors in Italy included hard-line minister Roberto Maro- ni) and who willingly took over Malta's migration burden. Not surprisingly, in March 2015 Muscat admitted that the pushback was a mis- take. Subsequently Muscat's government walked on a tight-rope between ad- vocating integration and periodic demon- strations of bigotry, like the detention of Malians rounded up for deportation – only to be released after three months. Luckily for Mus- cat the opposition rarely played the populist card on this issue as he had done when Gonzi was Prime Minister. Cyrus Engerer: soldier of steel Muscat had no qualms on remov- ing Cyrus Engerer from his list of can- didates for the European Parliament after he was condemned to a two-year jail term, suspended for two years, for disseminating compromising pictures on the internet of a former boyfriend. Engerer was ordered not to communicate with his victim or the victim's family for one year. But just 24 hours after Engerer was found guilty of the criminal offence, he was given a hero's welcome by the party, with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat calling him the PL's new "soldier of steel". Subsequently Engerer was given an envoy's role as the Prime Minister's Sherpa at the European Council. This showed Muscat's remarka- ble ability to walk on a tight-rope between decisive action against abuse, while still rewarding those involved. Citizenship salesman Muscat's out-of-the-box idea to of- fer Maltese citizenship to anyone paying €650,000 was initially intended to keep their names secret, something shot down by the European Parliament and again ex- posing a rift with European socialists, who were shocked by this blatant commer- cialisation of citizenship. Muscat tamed the original proposal after reaching an agreement with the European Commis- sion, removing the secrecy clause and ty- ing the monetary purchase of citizenship with investment in property and stocks. Yet the scheme continued to cause embar- rassment to the government after it was revealed that Muscat was contractually bound to Henley and Partners to promote the IIP scheme abroad, something that was seen as undignified for a Prime Minister. The hunting quandary For Muscat the hunting referendum represented a tricky situation. First of all the referendum was the result of a citizen initiative which defied his control over political events. Moreover it also drove a wedge between the liberal middle class which Muscat courted before the election and the hunting lobby with which Labour had signed a pre-electoral agreement. Ul- timately Muscat managed to defy the odds by securing a wafer-thin Yes victory with- out investing too much political capital on the issue. Muscat was then quick to announce the closure of the hunting season, three days before the due date when a bird was shot twice and crashed bleeding into the yard of St Edward's College in Cottonera while the children were on their school break. Underlining his highly personalised style of government, Muscat announced this decision in a tweet. Ultimately it was up to Muscat to deter- mine what constituted "flagrant abuse" warranting a stop to the season. Zonqor: the clash with civil society Muscat's decision to allocate ODZ land in Zonqor to a Jordanian construction com- pany with the aim of developing a univer- sity campus was met with the largest civil society protest in the past decade. In this case Muscat clearly underestimated the popular anger at his government's lack of environmental credentials. Muscat's re- action was to partially withdraw from his original stance, bowing to pressure by de- creasing the ODZ land takeup from 90,000 sq.m to 18,000 sq.m by relocating part of the campus to Dock Number 1 in Bormla. Decisive action against some… Before the election Muscat underlined his decisiveness by asking his deputy leader, Anglu Farrugia, to resign after he criticised the decision of a magistrate. After the elec- tion Muscat honoured his pledge to take decisive action when faced with blunders committed by Home Affairs Minister Ma- nuel Mallia and parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon. In December 2014 Mal- lia was forced to resign a month after his personal driver shot at a motorist in a hit- and-run incident, following an inquiry that exonerated Mallia from involvement in an attempted cover-up, but censured him. In January 2016 Muscat accepted the resignation of parliamentary Secretary Mi- chael Falzon following the Auditor Gen- eral's report in the Gaffarena property expropriation. "Michael Falzon is shoul- dering responsibility even if what is being said about him contains contradictions. Dr Falzon is an upright person who cares about his country," Muscat said at a press conference. Analysis When cornered… how JAMES DEBONO Before Panamagate, Joseph Muscat excelled in the art of pulling out before it was too late while Simon Busuttil was often overtaken by events. But has the PM run out of options after a year of scandals and is Busuttil now anticipating him?