Busuttil warns Cardona’s election ‘antithesis of good politics’

The election of Chris Cardona as the Labour Party’s new deputy leader was the antithesis of good politics and was a clear case of jumping out of the frying and into the fire, according to opposition leader Simon Busuttil.

He said he could not fathom how such a person – who had publicly proclaimed that he was all for il-politika tal-mannara “politics with an axe” – could become the second most powerful person within the party in government.

“Cardona symbolises perfectly government’s aggressive stance against anyone who dares stand up and speak out against its policies,” Busuttil said. “If prime minister Joseph Muscat needed a partner that matched his own style of dirty politics, than Cardona was the ideal selection.”

He said the fact the LP had to resort to choose a new deputy leader three months after the previous election would go down in history, after Konrad Mizzi went down in flames ofr his involvement in the Panama Papers scandal.

Busuttil, in an interview on Radio 101, said Muscat was making things even more difficult for himself, as it would be impossible to remove Cardona from his post in the future after the prime minister had failed to remove Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, despite their being involved in the Panama Papers scandal.

“And now the Labour Party went and elected a deputy leader that is a business partner of his own chief of staff [Mario Azzopardi], further accentuating the government’s total blindness and disinterest in what was happening.”

Busuttil said the Nationalist Party in opposition was offering a healthy alternative to the government’s dirty way of doing business, citing his recent proposal that all development in the Outside Development Zones (ODZ) must be approved by a two-thirds majority in parliament.

“Our proposal was met with support and backing from most organisations and NGOs, and the sole critic was the prime minister, who said this would take decision-making out of the hands of experts and into the hands of politicians.

“But these are not experts, let’s be clear,” he added. “The government split the Planning Authority because it wanted direct control over decisions taken; it has now turned the authority into a Labour Party club that simply rubberstamps decisions taken by Muscat.”

He referred to the government’s decision to give away a huge tract of ODZ land to a Jordanian investor for the building of a university, “after the prime minister met the investor for only one minute, as he himself is proud to claim”.

Busuttil also cast doubt over plans to sell Air Malta shares to Alitalia, whose chairman had already proclaimed the Italian airline would not be investing a cent in Air Malta and had described the purchase as having zero risk for Alitalia.

“This week I met the four unions representing all the workers at Air Malta and it was evident there was a lot of tension in the air and uncertainty among the workers,” he said.

The opposition had made it clear to the unions that, while open to discuss any proposal put forward by the government, there were certain lines it would not cross.

“Why is the government insisting on selling to Alitalia? If they were the only interested parties, we could tell them ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ since it is obvious they will not be investing anything in Air Malta.”

Busuttil said there were other options available to the government, including selling the shares to the Maltese public or even to the workers themselves, and insisted these alternatives were in the national interest and more profitable to a strategic entity like Air Malta.

Busuttil said that the government’s dirty way of doing business was further illustrated this week when the Medical Association of Malta called on government to stop interfering in the running of the hospital.

“MAM accused the government of interference, of jumping queues for operations and of calling people to let them know their operations had to be postponed,” he said.

“If you’re a decent individual and accept the schedule given, you could very well find yourself at the bottom of the list, because someone else knows a minister who can help jump the queues and push him to the top of the waiting lists for operations.”