Former book council boss who broke ranks with Labour, says ‘PN only hope for change’

Mark Camilleri, a Labour Party member and former chairman of the National Book Council, has said he will pledge his vote for the Nationalist Party... even though he thinks they should also be opposed once in power.

In a definite break from the party he supported well before his 2013 appointment as book council executive chairman, Camilleri, whose tenure was not renewed in 2021, said the PN had to be elected “to safeguard our democracy, restore rule of law, bring back life to our economy, save our foreign reputation, and begin a process of progressive change in our society.”

Camilleri, a vocal critic of Labour following the election of Robert Abela as leader in 2020, said in a blog post said Malta’s rule of law would only degenerate further to a “total collapse” under a re-elected Labour administration.

“We have witnessed no progress at all in rule of law. No politician has been arraigned in court. The mega corrupt contracts that the previous administrations have signed have not changed and are all still in effect,” Camilleri said, referring to the Vitals, Electrogas and Saint Vincent de Paul contracts.

Camilleri however qualified his support, saying that while electing the PN would not solve Malta’s problems, it would “deliver a big hit to criminality in politics, safeguard our democracy and trigger a process of radical change”.

Indeed, he said that once elected, “the PN should be opposed once again”.

Camilleri lambasted Abela, as well as former parliamentary secretary Rosianne Cutajar and justice minister Edward Zammit Lewis, describing them as “literal white-collar criminals” who would have been “imprisoned in any sort of functioning democracy”.

Camilleri, an anti-censorship activist who campaigned for the removal of criminal libel, also hit out at a bill to criminalise cyberbullying, which he said ran contrary to free speech.

“Labour intends to re-introduce criminal libel with a two two-year prison sentence and a fine of up to €30,000. Labour also intends to apply foreign court judgments of libel on Maltese citizens into Maltese law,” he said, adding that electing Labour would result in a new raft of legislation against free speech.

Camilleri, author of the book ‘A Rentseeker’s Paradise’, also accused Labour of basing its economic plans solely on public spending and of greenwashing. “You cannot expect much from Robert Abela, and Labour’s only solution to our problems is to simply throw more money at them. The nepotism will increase and Labour’s economic largesse will expand further thanks to government spending.”