Vince Farrugia: from feared kingmaker to deposed ‘pope’

Vince Farrugia, an economist hailing from a Labour background who led the national environmental agency IDEA during the final days of old Labour, found fertile political terrain in the 1990s.

At times rabidly protectionist, at times a defender of free markets, Farrugia owed his success to a sharp sense of brinkmanship which exploited the ideological vagueness of Maltese politics and allowed him to shift his allegiance with remarkable ease.

As defender of small business, running the offices of the General Retailers Trade Union (now styled the Chamber of SMEs), Farrugia could 'sound Labour' by railing against Brussels over its environmental and health rules or by defending Sunday rests for shopkeepers. But deep at heart, he was hostile to socialism and State intervention in the economy. Except when this suited the interests he defended.

But it was his brinkmanship and ambiguity that turned him into a feared political force: his strength lay in his ability to shift sides, and for that reason he was described as a "second Mintoff" by one former ally, Sandro Chetcuti - today facing charges of grievous bodily harm after an alleged assault on Farrugia at the GRTU offices.

In the 1990s, the GRTU was a key peg in Alfred Sant's 'new social alliance', which catapulted Labour to victory in 1996 by supporting the removal of VAT. But in 2003 he was instrumental in backing Eddie Fenech Adami's national movement for EU membership - and that included accepting VAT and the removal of protective levies.

His opposition to VAT in 1994 broke a historical taboo, leading the GRTU - a union of traditionally Nationalist-oriented traders and small businessmen - in an unholy alliance with the General Workers Union. It was the first time a business association marched in a general strike with the unions against VAT. He was shortly hosted as a columnist on the GWU newspaper L-orrizont.

But Farrugia was a hard nut to crack. As the economy deteriorated under Labour, he instantly fell out with Sant but remained critical of EU membership after the PN was re-elected to power. When he started participating in the pre-accession consultations on EU negotiations dealing with business and enterprise, his euroscepticism started to melt.

He resumed his role as kingmaker in 2003, by joining the 35 civil society organisations then supporting Eddie Fenech Adami's bid for membership. He nearly resigned in 2006, claiming Nationalist-leaning elements had tried to exclude government critics from the GRTU council.

He repeatedly clashed with Nationalist minister Austin Gatt, but his worsening relationship with Alfred Sant's Labour seemed to have continued even with Joseph Muscat's decisively pro-business turn. Farrugia was instead seen as an obstacle in Labour's bid to win business's endorsement, and the party had now found new allies that had rendered the GRTU irrelevant.

His decision to run on the PN ticket for MEP in 2009 was the final nail in the coffin of Farrugia's stormy relationship with Labour. It fatally dented his kingmaker's reputation, robbing him of his 'Mintoffian unpredictability' and did him no favours: he failed to get elected, with just 4,056 votes.

Subsequently, a different side to Farrugia was revealed in the court evidence produced by the defence of construction developer Sandro Chetucti, whose assault on Farrugia in the GRTU offices in 2009 first led to an attempted murder charge, before being downgraded to GBH. Evidence of SMSs from Farrugia's number showed that he could have influenced the original charge through an improper diagnosis of his injuries, and tried to foment a media backlash against Chetcuti (he used trusted ally Mario Debono to communicate with poison-pen blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia and lead the faecal blitzkrieg) - even though Farrugia denies this was the case.

But ultimately, Farrugia had burnt too many bridges with Labour to continue leading the business lobby under Muscat's government: his own council members in the GRTU scowled that "ministers could not even stomach him", and they demanded to know how they were going to elect a successor to take his place. Moreover, Labour's new business friends include employers MEA and hoteliers in the MHRA, and Sandro Chetcuti's own Malta Developers Association.

For the past two years, Farrugia represented the GRTU in Brussels, in the European Economic and Social Committee. Expenses he claimed on the GRTU raised eyebrows. His other council members were doing the job he was expected to do in Malta. A feisty discussion earlier this week saw GRTU president Paul Abela, long considered to be an ally, lead the push to oust Farrugia from the post of director-general: the council was so eager as to accept paying him a 20-month severance on his €38,000 salary.

True, at 69 Farrugia had already made clear his intention to step down in January. But things came to a head last Monday, when the GRTU council decided to "unanimously thank him" for his 20 years of service.

And how did he feel about that? His laconic response was, "If critics start kicking at the leader when he is down... well, you know how it is, it's what they did to Pope Benedict."