Aleander Balzan, policy consultant to Robert Abela, tenders resignation from OPM

The Office of the Prime Minister’s policy consultant Aleander Balzan, a former Labour head of communications, has tendered his resignation.

Balzan was a long-time journalist who had worked at Labour’s TV station One, as well as the GWU stable of newspapers. After returning to One as its head of news, Balzan later became head of communications at the Labour Party, before taking up a policy post at the Office of the Prime Minister.

Balzan appears to be the latest casualty of personnel changes inside the embattled secretariat of Prime Minister Robert Abela, whose latest crisis was handling the suspension of Central Bank governor Edward Scicluna, who faces criminal charges in connection with the Vitals hospitals PPP procurement.

Balzan, who confirmed with MaltaToday his resignation, denied having had any disagreements within the OPM’s secretariat, and insisted he was returning to party activism.

He said it was his great privilege to have worked at the heart of Robert Abela’s secretariat and facing “the greatest of challenges and overcoming them one after the other.”

Balzan said he would be dedicating more of his time inside Labour as an activist, having been formerly a student activist in Pulse, the social-democrat students’ union.

In the process, his parting shot carried a back-handed reference to attempts by former Labour officials to make a comeback.

“Our obligation as activists is to continue taking the party forward and keep it a force for good and progress that appeals to the majority of Gozitans and Maltese. The lessons we learned from our years in opposition, particularly before 2008, should never be forgotten. Therefore, I will continue to support Prime Minister Robert Abela and all those who, in the coming times, work to ensure that Labour remains the natural home for all Maltese and Gozitans.”

Political observers will infer the reference to former Labour secretary-general Jason Micallef, currently plotting his return to a decisive role in the Labour leadership for its recently vacated deputy leadership for party affairs – which was traditionally occupied by a non-MP.

And while Balzan was part of the class of Joseph Muscat’s 2017 victory, he has been the target of social media vitriol by the disgraced PM’s former ‘person of trust’ Neville Gafà, who has placed various Labour administration officials in his crosshairs. They included Labour’s CEO Randolph De Battista, who is also an MP, and party president Ramona Attard, as well as numerous ministers such as Julia Farrugia Portelli and Miriam Dalli.

Gafà had alleged on Facebook that Balzan instructed ministers to “cast the blame for the Vitals PPP inquiry… on Muscat.”

Gafà forms part of a cadre of Labour voices who believe Muscat, facing criminal charges of corruption on the Vitals PPP he authored, is being ‘persecuted’ by the judiciary and anti-corruption NGOs.

The case has so far cost the post of deputy prime minister Chris Fearne, who also faces charges, and now former finance minister Edward Scicluna from his post of Central Bank governor.