Cassola says prime minister wants yes-man to replace ‘critical’ Toni Abela

Alternattiva Demokratika’s chairperson has claimed that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat nominated PL deputy leader Toni Abela as Malta’s representative on the European Court of Auditors so as to replace “a critical voice within the PL executive with a yes-man”.

“With Toni Abela being kicked upstairs to Luxembourg, Prime Minister Muscat has now got rid of one of the few critical voices left in the PL executive,” Arnold Cassola wrote on Facebook. “He has now announced a change in the [PL] statute so that an MP can become deputy leader [for party affairs].

“This means that Muscat has already decided that the deputy leader will either be a minister or a serving MP, who all owe him their faithful allegiance because of the ministry assigned to them or the second-paid job he had benevolently granted them.

“Clearing the way for another yes-man?”

Muscat announced earlier today during a political activity that he will propose the abolishment of a long-standing Labour policy that disallows MPs from serving as deputy leader for party affairs, a post currently occupied by Toni Abela.

“The requirement has served the party well in the past but the time has come to write a new chapter in the history of the PL’s internal operations,” he said. 

Abela co-founded Alternattiva Demokratika in 1989, along with the former Labour whip Wenzu Mintoff, today judge. He left the green party in 1998, rejoining the Labour Party.