News • 13 July 2003

Sant dispels rumours he’s stepping down as Mifsud appeals for change

Kurt Sansone

It was a ‘cool’ Alfred Sant that told a recent Labour Party executive meeting that he was not going to step down from his post in a year’s time, contrary to rumours making the rounds.

Sources have told MaltaToday that towards the end of the executive meeting Alfred Sant stood up and said rumours about him stepping down in a year’s time to contest the European Parliament elections were false. "Just to inform you, I intend staying on," Sant told the executive members just before leaving the meeting.

The veiled message was, the sources said, intended to pour water on leadership hopefuls trying to attempt a take over of the party leader position in 2004.

Ever since his re-election as leader rumour has had it that Sant will stay on until June next year, and then contest the European Parliament elections on behalf of the Labour Party.

The enigmatic Sant has other plans, it seems, even though Labour candidate and former Mid Med Bank chairman Alfred Mifsud this week reiterated his belief that the party needs new faces to ‘sell’ its new policies to the electorate.

Writing in the General Workers’ Union daily l-orizzont on Thursday, Mifsud recalled the incident a year ago when he had publicly stated that if the MLP manifesto included a proposal to remove VAT he would not stand as an election candidate.

Mifsud’s statement on Net TV had prompted Alfred Sant to criticise Mifsud publicly, even if the party was still discussing the VAT issue internally. In l-orizzont Mifsud wrote that Sant’s criticism at the time was a ‘slap in the face’ for his candidature. Without mentioning Alfred Sant by name the former Super One chairman wrote: "It is difficult to make new policies with old faces because you’ll end up in a worse situation."

Mifsud said it would be difficult for the very same people who made the EU issue a question of principle for the Labour Party to now preach about accepting the new reality.

And without mincing his words, Mifsud warned the party against complacency. The party cannot win the next election, he wrote, without making people accountable for what happened at the last election. "We cannot instead pretend that the bruises have cured and all we need to do is simply wait for the next election," Mifsud warned.

Mifsud’s article clearly shows that Sant’s tenure in the party is still being challenged openly and the year ahead may be too long for Sant’s liking.

kurt@maltamag.com