Opposition leader says Coleiro Preca nomination was ‘fait accompli’

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has complained of not having been consulted over the choice of social solidarity minister Marie Louise Coleiro Preca as President of the Republic.

@JosephMuscat_JM yesterday presented me with a fait accompli on his choice of #President. Blatantly untrue to say I was informed on 9 Jan — Simon Busuttil (@SimonBusuttil) March 5, 2014

Busuttil said in a tweet that it was "blatantly untrue" for Joseph Muscat to claim that he informed the Opposition leader of his forthcoming appointment on 9 January.

"Joseph Muscat yesterday presented me with a fait accompli on his choice of President," Busuttil said.

Coleiro Preca was announced as president-designate yesterday on 4 March, a month before she is to replace George Abela.

The Opposition leader's complaint is redolent of that expressed by former Opposition leader Alfred Sant, who claims Lawrence Gonzi's choice of Eddie Fenech Adami in 2004 as president had also come on a similar non-negotiable basis.

Busuttil had earlier said that he expected the Labour government to nominate a president from the Opposition's political camp, by way of emulating Gonzi's nomination of George Abela, formerly Labour deputy leader for party affairs until 1998, as president in 2009.