Not just former deputy leader Michael Falzon and leadership runner-up George Abela are calling for Jason Micallef’s head.
Labour delegates sympathetic to new leader Joseph Muscat believe the Labour secretary-general could prove to be a divisive factor unless he steps down from his post.
Pressure has been mounting on Jason Micallef to desist from contesting the post of secretary-general when an extraordinary general conference is convened to elect the new administration in the weeks to come.
Only last weekend, Micallef was at Muscat's celebratory dinner in Madliena.
The pressure is coming from all fronts, not least from people who supported Muscat’s campaign, who feel Micallef is associated with Labour’s electoral defeat, and because of his public feud with Michael Falzon.
Remarks that Micallef passed on Friday last week to the Labour media, just hours before the second round of the leadership contest, were initially interpreted as a dig at George Abela.
But Micallef’s claim that he never “danced, hugged or slept with the Nationalists” were clearly applicable to Michael Falzon, known for his cordial relationship with Nationalist secretary-general Joe Saliba.
Saliba himself told Radio 101 he had “found it much easier to work with Michael Falzon rather than Micallef.”
MLP delegates found Micallef’s words discordant with Joseph Muscat’s reconciliatory tone, who has called out to those who felt aggrieved with what might have happened in the “last few years, months or days.”
It is yet unknown whether Micallef will bow down to pressure from Labour insiders not to contest.
Alfred Grixti, currently the editorial consultant of Labour’s online newspaper maltastar.com, threw his hat in the ring last April. “If the Labour Party does not have a secretary-general who is up to the job, we won’t ever make it,” Grixti had told MaltaToday, clearly implying that Micallef’s time was up after Labour’s defeat.