Alan Camilleri denies resignation claim: ‘I don’t share Dalli’s political aspirations’

The former spokesperson to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has issued a statement denying claims by European Commissioner John Dalli that he was part of a resignation plot to remove Dalli from government back in 2004.

Alan Camilleri, today Malta Enteprise chairman, said in a reference to “the aspersions being floated by Commissioner John Dalli” that he has already rejected as false and fictitious the allegations.

“Commissioner John Dalli has his political reasons for repeating allegations which are completely unfounded and which have already been categorically denied. On his part, Alan Camilleri does not share the same political aspirations as Commissioner John Dalli and therefore focuses on doing the business pertaining to his office.”

In an extensive interview, John Dalli reacted to the confirmed jailing of private investigator Joe Zahra, who fabricated a damning report that alleged kickbacks to the minister leading the Prime Minister to insist for his resignation, by claiming Camilleri was part of a resignation plot.

“We know how this clique was formed, in the press, the Sunday Times, the Times, and Where’s Everybody... they ganged up together with Ivan Camilleri (then PBS journalist) and Alan Camilleri (spokesperson for Lawrence Gonzi at the time of Dalli’s resignation),” Dalli said.

Finance minister Tonio Fenech has declared that Camilleri is to stay on in his post, despite the stern accusation by Dalli that Camilleri was part of a “conspiracy” to oust him from Cabinet in 2004. In reply to a parliamentary question, Tonio Fenech stressed that Camilleri should “continue to serve” his post.

Tonio Fenech’s reply to Labour MP Gino Cauchi went a step further from a terse statement sent to MaltaToday from the Office of the Prime Minister a day after John Dalli called for investigations into the people he claimed to have “plotted his political assassination.”

In his statement, Camilleri reproduced a letter he sent to the Times on 16 December 2007, claiming he had never been informed of the private investigator’s report by the Prime Minister. “The references made to my dealings with Steve Mallia, Lou Bondì or any other person he is connecting to the stories which led to his resignation are equally speculative, fictitious and blatantly untrue,” Camilleri had said.