TMID Editorial: Dissent in the ranks

If there’s one thing that the Labour Party has managed to do in the last decade, it is to successfully keep its internal dissent precisely that – internal.It was a political environment where for many years the drama of politicians and of

By: independent.com.mt

Jul 19 2024
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TMID Editorial: Dissent in the

If there’s one thing that the Labour Party has managed to do in the last decade, it is to successfully keep its internal dissent precisely that – internal.

It was a political environment where for many years the drama of politicians and officials publicly lashing out against their own party was almost solely constrained to the Nationalist Party, with the situation being so serious that at a point people were starting to consider the likelihood of the party actually going through a bitter and acrimonious divorce – creating two separate parties.

That didn’t transpire however, and the PN today is one which appears to have put its internal strife behind it. Last June’s electoral results have no doubt galvanised the party, and put to bed any suggestions of renewed would-be power struggles.

The Labour Party meanwhile has always kept its dissent in public to a minimum. Even as the Muscat administration went through the Panama Papers, the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and a whole host of other scandals, very few of its own exponents made their criticisms public. Nobody took a stand, and nobody dared take a stand against the party.

Even when Yorgen Fenech was arrested and Muscat’s closest allies were implicated and forced to step down, with thousands taking to the streets – there was no public manifestation of discontent against Muscat by those in his own party. Everything was kept internal, and Muscat ultimately stepped down, but not before a farewell tour around the country.

The party went through a hotly contested leadership election: one side won, the other lost, and life went on pretty much as usual – at least in the public eye.

But something now appears to have changed. The signs of dissent are starting to appear, and they’re starting to appear in the public eye.

Former MP such as Evarist Bartolo has long been measured in his criticism, particularly since failing to be elected in the last general election, but there are other exponents now making their voices heard.

Former MP Silvio Grixti – now criminally charged in a benefits fraud racket – has criticised Abela, while others such as Joe Sammut and even Neville Gafa are coming out of the wings with their dissatisfaction.

There is even dissent, it appears, among those within the PL camp. Valletta local councillor and former mayor Alfred Zammit has said that there were those working against him from within, and threatened to leave the party to become an independent councillor.

But more so, in recent days, two out of the PL’s newly elected MEPs defied their party’s position by voting against Roberta Metsola in her bid to become European Parliament President – a bid which was ultimately successful, with record support.

Alex Agius Saliba and Daniel Attard both abstained from voting for Metsola, refusing to support the PN MEP’s bid for the European Parliament’s top post. This conflicted with Robert Abela’s position. Abela publicly supported Metsola’s nomination time and time again, and said that the PL, while disagreeing with her on some aspects, would support her nomination as a Maltese MEP for such a top post. The party’s other MEP Thomas Bajada did ultimately vote in Metsola’s favour.

Yet, Agius Saliba – the head of the PL’s MEP delegation, and Attard defied their party leader and their party’s position. Such a thing would have been unheard of in the Labour Party of the last decade.

It appears that the results of last month’s elections have jolted something within the PL.

The dissent is becoming all the more public, and while it had been isolated instances thus far, this flagrant dissent by two politicians of such prominence is quite possibly the biggest warning sign of something happening within.