Labour propagandist claims business people ‘blocking’ Joseph Muscat return to politics

Labour propagandist Emanuel Cuschieri has threatened to out “businessmen” who he claims are blocking Joseph Muscat’s return to politics.

He claims these people are working behind the scenes to stop the former Labour leader from contesting the European Parliament election this June.

“We want the PL to register its biggest-ever electoral victory in June, and to assure this happens we must be completely sure that its MEP candidates are the best ones possible,” he told followers in a Facebook live message on Tuesday evening.

Cuschieri has been on the frontline in promoting Muscat’s return, taking to social media to rile up supporters in favour of the former prime minister. He went as far as saying he would stand up to anyone inside Labour who is opposing the return of the disgraced former PM.

The domino effect eventually resulted in Labour MEP candidates voicing their support for Muscat should he decide to contest next June’s election. This culminated in Muscat being invited to Alex Agius Saliba's campaign launch, where the former leader delivered a defiant speech that traversed Labour's glory days under his leadership, denied coruption allegations and charted out a future for the party.

Muscat’s wife Michelle Muscat has also addressed rallies held by candidates, namely Clint Flores, Daniel Attard, as well as Claudette Abela Baldacchino.

Muscat has done little to quash rumours, telling this newspaper last January he does not exclude the possibility, insisting he cannot ignore the people.

On Tuesday evening, Cuschieri said that he will be forced to name these business people unless they stop “interfering” in internal PL issues.

“They don’t have the PL’s interests at heart but other interests, and if they don’t stop interfering, I will be forced to name them,” he said.

Rosianne Cutajar left in abeyance

The Labour propogandist also questioned why independent MP Rosianne Cutajar is yet to be integrated into the PL parliamentary group, despite Abela speaking on her potential return last January.

He said that the PL executive and parliamentary group were supposed to meet on Monday to discuss Cutajar’s potential reintegration among other issues, but that this meeting was cancelled at the last minute.

“It is a big mystery why it was cancelled. Rather than making a statement, I will question whether the cancellation of this meeting was in any way linked to the success of PL MEP Alex Agius Saliba’s event at Triton Fountain last Saturday, in which Alfred Sant and Joseph Muscat spoke out,” Cuschieri told followers.

However, a well-placed source inside the PL has told MaltaToday that a meeting of the executive had long been scheduled for Monday and the meeting did take place.

"The meeting that had been communicated to members of the executive several days before was always a meeting of the executive alone with no involvement of the parliamentary group. The executive did meet and Rosianne Cutajar was not on the agenda. Unless Manuel Cuschieri knows something that I do not, I cannot understand why he said that the parliamentary group and executive had to meet," the source said.

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