V18 chairman’s remuneration doubles to €25,000

Former Labour Party secretary-general and election candidate Jason Micallef has seen his salary as V18 chairman go up from €13,000 to €25,000.

In comments to MaltaToday, Micallef – who is also chairman of Labour’s TV station ONE – confirmed that he now receives €25,000 for his role as V18 chairman, adding that he currently puts in 20 hours a week at the helm of the board leading Valletta as the European Capital for Culture in 2018.

“This does not include many events and other personal Valletta 2018 engagements falling on weekends,” Micallef added.

Two months after the 2013 election, Micallef replaced respected architect David Felice at the helm of the V18 board, an appointment first met with derision within cultural circles.

He was appointed by then parliamentary secretary José Herrera reportedly without Castille’s fiat, and since then has had to face criticism from the European Commission’s monitoring board to hasten preparatory works for Valletta’s 2018 appointment.

While some critics warmed up to the appointment, Micallef has attempted to make his mark as a steward of the capital city when he clashed with economy minister Chris Cardona over the relocation of Monti hawkers to Ordinance Street in Valletta, a few metres away from the iconic Renzo Piano parliament.

But Micallef also stood by the unpopular Mario Philip Azzopardi, one of V18’s artistic directors, embroiled in various controversies that included an online Islamophobic rant and a spat with a former V18 assistant artistic director, Sean Buhagiar.