Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/871892
8 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER 2017 Analysis Labour spins the Delia insurgency IT was only after the Brexit upset and shortly after Donald Trump's election that Prime Minster Joseph Muscat de- rided the PN as a party of elites and "the establishment" in 2016. Today, it is Adrian Delia who is playing the anti-establishment card to lash out at the Nationalist Party's old guard, which he accused of using an internal ethics inquiry to stub his election. He claimed the call for the inquiry came from the party estab- lishment which he says is controlling the PN and wants to tarnish his name ahead of an election in which 22,000 paid-up members will select either him or Chris Said for PN leader. But can Delia really capture the anti-elit- ist spirit, and how is Labour responding? Ironically Delia's narrative matches that of Muscat. After Trump's election, Mus- cat often attacked PN leader Simon Bu- suttil for being part of an establishment and the "political elite." Busuttil reacted by lashing at Muscat's "corrupt establish- ment". But it seemed it was Muscat who had the best understanding of the global anti-es- tablishment wave – not as an insurgency against corruption – but a yearning for a connection between voters and leaders who understand them. Reacting to Trump's victory, Muscat ac- tually issued a statement describing it as a sign "that families and business want deci- sion-makers to hear their real, unfiltered concerns" and that "priorities are decided in homes and workplaces, not in palaces or newsrooms." It was no surprise that the Labour com- mentary warmed up to Delia's message. Government consultant Robert Musume- ci described the reactions of the "elitists" to the result of the first round, where over 600 party councillors chose Delia, as "a confirmation of the panic within the es- tablishment". The sentiment was echoed by the General Workers' Union organ l-orizzont, praising Delia as an "anti-es- tablishment candidate" fighting against a "hidden hand" that is trying to maintain control over the party. Caviar and wine, the OPM's take But it was perhaps the spokesperson at Castille, Kurt Farrugia, who was quick to remove any ambiguity and reminding La- bourites that the "arrogant" Delia was also "part of an elite that do not feel what peo- ple feel at home because they are well off feeding on expensive caviar and wine" and that "the fact that Delia is a sleazy charac- ter is known". This image Farrugia conjures of Delia contrasts with Muscat's projection as the normal citizen who shops at Green's Su- permarket and pays for the lavish €11,014 holiday in Dubai with his credit card: an image which resonates with an aspiration- al middle class and the newly-moneyed. So in Farrugia's narrative it is Muscat who incarnates a sort of cockeyed 'anti- establishment' as he – quoting Farru- gia – "keeps leading the country forward and pushing a positive message, while the country keeps growing in wealth and our societies become more socially just." This kind of message seems to counter- balance the impression that Labour would like to see Delia as its adversary, some- thing hinted at in yet another Facebook status posted by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, who alluded to Delia being La- bour's Trojan horse. Delia's rival, the former minister and Na- tionalist MP Chris Said, has however at- tempted to reclaim the anti-establishment rhetoric by reminding voters that the real establishment in the country is made up of "Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri, Kon- rad Mizzi and Chris Cardona". Now, the addition of Cardona to the 'Panama' triad can only be understood as a veiled refer- ence to Delia's past association with the Labour deputy leader: both men appeared to have been at one point directors of an offshore company, Healey Properties, which owned several residences on behalf of a Maltese Soho landlord, which proper- ties were raided by London police during Operation Pabail, an investigation into a prostitution racket. Was there a hidden hand? Writing in party organ Il-Mument, PN candidate Mark Anthony Sammut decon- structed Delia's anti-establishment narra- tive. "The idea that there is a hidden clique of four old people holding the strings and able to determine how 1,500 people vote is nothing but Labour propaganda which is now being propagated by some of us." In some ways the result of the PN's Gen- eral Council election contradicts Delia's narrative. Last Saturday's result on its own may be seen as an insurgency against the Is the Nationalist newcomer contending for the PN leadership truly an example of caviar arrogance, or is he the PN's folk hero? JAMES DEBONO Folk-hero? Adrian Delia has been keen on trying to capture an anti-establishment spirit inside the PN