Cyrus Engerer to run for MEP, 'no conflict' for Labour CEO

Labour’s chief executive officer Randolph Debattista has given short shrift to suggestions that he step down from his post after his partner Cyrus Engerer announced his candidature for the European Parliament.

The announcement on Facebook by the former Labour candidate, instantly invited scrutiny from other camps inside the party to question whether Debattista should relinquish control of the party’s inner workings.

“Labour is not built on just one individual,” Debattista said yesterday. “My work as CEO is part of a structure that includes other people.”

The CEO post was created by Joseph Muscat to scuttle the elected post of secretary-general, the de facto ‘controller’ of the party machinery, so that he could hand-pick the person who holds sway at Labour HQ.

But Debattista ignored suggestions that his role as CEO could be seen as favouring Engerer’s candidature. Engerer was, until recently, the Prime Minister’s Sherpa in Brussels, but was reportedly miffed at not having been selected to become Malta’s permanent representative in Brussels.

“In every election, it is this party structure that takes decisions in the interest of the party, but also in the country’s interest. I assure it will be doing this. On my part, I have the Prime Minister’s trust that I will be working professionally. My job is to bring about a favourable result for Labour in the next election… I am certain that the candidates’ line-up is going to be a strong one that will ensure Malta benefits from the election result,” Debattista said.

Cyrus Engerer yesterday announced his intention to run for next year’s European Parliament elections with the Labour Party.

In a Facebook post, Engerer said he was welcoming Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s call for him to run for the MEP elections, having been “honoured” in the last week by the encouragement he received from various people to contest.

In May, Engerer stepped down from his role as the Prime Minister’s EU representative, a position to which he had been appointed in 2015.

Engerer, who was in the past a member of the Nationalist Party, and who has served as PN’s Sliema Deputy Mayor, later defected to the Labour Party shortly before the 2013 general election.

He had subsequently stood for the 2014 European Parliament elections with Labour, only to withdraw his candidacy when a court of appeal sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended for two years, after he was found guilty of revenge porn against a former boyfriend.

In his Facebook post, Engerer criticised the “behaviour” of Nationalist Party MEPs Roberta Metsola and David Casa, who, he said, had in the past five years gone “against what the Maltese believe in”.

“Malta’s six MEPs should always put Malta’s interests first,” he said, “We might not agree, and may argue amongst ourselves, but we should have one voice when we are representing the white and red flag which unites us.”

He said he had spent the last few years in Brussels attending European Parliament sessions and listening to the “attacks against Malta”, without being able to speak his mind on the matter.

“I am determined to bring forward the voice of the Maltese,” he emphasised, adding that while he would for the time being remain the Prime Minister’s consultant on EU policy, he would be doing all he could to ensure Labour had their ninth strong win in the European elections next year.

Other candidates for Labour’s line-up include former Orizzont editor, Josef Caruana, who today works in the Office of the Prime Minister, former Labour Party official, Lorna Vassallo, as well as possible candidatures from youth leader Alex Saliba, Josianne Cutajar, candidates from the last round of elections, choreographer Felix Busuttil, and Mary Gauci, a former candidate for eurosceptic pan-European group Libertas.