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Karl Schembri
Labour Leader Alfred Sant threatened to pull out of last Friday’s Xarabank programme if his predecessor, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, was present in the audience.
In a clear warning to presenter Joe Azzopardi a day before the programme, Sant insisted he would not turn up if Mifsud Bonnici was among the audience in the studio on Friday evening.
Mifsud Bonnici, who is leading the anti-EU Constitution front within the Labour Party, was invited to participate in the programme in which Sant was to be the main guest.
The former Labour leader decided not to insist on appearing in the programme “for the good of the Party” but told MaltaToday he could not understand Sant’s threat.
“The leader insisted he would not turn up if I participated; I cannot understand the reasoning behind that attitude,” Mifsud Bonnici said. “Xarabank informed me of Sant’s position and insisted that in principle they did not accept it and that they were prepared to proceed with the programme without Sant. But I decided not to go on the programme for the good of the Labour Party and so as not to disrupt the programme.”
Azzopardi also insisted he was prepared to go ahead with the programme without Alfred Sant, but when asked why he had informed Mifsud Bonnici of the threat to pull out he said he felt ethically bound to tell him.
“It was the right thing to do, because I couldn’t let Mifsud Bonnici just come to the studio and realise there and then that Sant didn’t turn up because of him,” Azzopardi said when contacted yesterday.
MLP Secretary General Jason Micallef said the Labour Party objected to open debate about the European Constitution.
“It’s a blackout at this stage, because the party’s parliamentary group decided not to discuss this issue until it reaches a common position internally, which will then be debated in public,” Micallef said. “We had agreed on the format of the programme beforehand, but on Thursday we were informed that Mifsud Bonnici would be present, and we couldn’t allow him to speak about the EU Constitution while Sant was bound by the parliamentary group’s unanimous decision to remain silent. It’s a blackout decision we’ve also enforced on our own Party media.”
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