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Matthew Vella
Labour’s veteran MP George Vella yesterday brushed off former party candidate Alfred Mifsud’s accusations that the erstwhile deputy leader was “guilty” of refusing the party leadership three times and “constraining Labour to face the next election without the necessary credibility that old faces cannot give to new policies,” referring to party leader Alfred Sant.
Vella also did not confirm or deny Mifsud’s allegation that a gentleman’s agreement had bound the Labour leadership in 2003 to bow out following the electoral loss. Vella would have allegedly refused an offer for an interim leadership by Alfred Mifsud because of this gentleman’s agreement.
“I think these are internal matters for the party,” Vella told MaltaToday yesterday, “and basically I am not ready to discuss these matters because they are internal decisions. I don’t feel I need to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ – it is like in the government cabinet, there are things you do not discuss in public.”
Writing in The Malta Independent on Friday this week, Alfred Mifsud clearly exposed his contempt for Sant’s leadership when revealing he had phoned George Vella after the April 2003 electoral loss to plead with him to become leader.
Vella was then Labour’s deputy leader for parliamentary affairs. He had formerly turned down the leadership of the party from Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici back in 1992, paving the way for the contest that elected Sant to power.
“I made it clear that he would be an interim leader for a 12 month period until the party could analyse the whys and wherefores of the 2003 electoral defeat and then proceed to choose a new leader, calmly and on a properly informed basis,” Mifsud wrote on Friday, describing Vella as having been the only credible person for such a role – “he had a moral duty to stand as an interim leader to ensure that the party would not be constrained to face yet another election with the disadvantage of a failed leader.”
Mifsud was writing following revelations by this newspaper that Vella had refused a third leadership offer from party activists Steve McCarthy and Joe Zrinzo, who suggested his bid would have had the backing of an MLP deputy leader.
Last week, party affairs deputy leader Michael Falzon would not confirm or deny that he had been the man touted by McCarthy and Zrinzo, two of his close activists, to back Vella’s leadership bid.
According to Alfred Mifsud, Vella had refused his offer to contest the leadership back in 2003 because he had promised to make space for others in the event of an electoral defeat. Following weeks of speculation about Sant’s imminent resignation after April 2003, Sant turned back the tide on workers’ day on 1 May, when supporters greeted the Labour leader with placards beckoning him to stay on.
“He also added that Alfred Sant had made a similar gentleman’s agreement with him,” Mifsud alleged, “and therefore he was amazed and puzzled by the roundabout turn just executed by Dr Sant in public view in Freedom Square on that 1 May 2003.”
Vella yesterday did not sound too consternated by Mifsud’s allegations, when contacted by MaltaToday. “Everyone has the right to their opinion, and this remains entirely subjective. I don’t really need to argue here. When you are in the public arena you expect people to have opinions about you,” he said about Mifsud lobbing him with blame for leaving Sant to lead on the party.
matthew@newsworksltd.com
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