Alex Agius Saliba will not contest next general election

Alex Agius Saliba will not be contesting the next general election despite being elected Labour Party deputy leader for party affairs, the MEP has told MaltaToday. 

“I have made it clear, especially now, that in no way will my name be on the ballot paper for the next general election,” he said in an interview published today. 

The decision not to contest was a condition he laid down when accepting the Prime Minister’s request to contest the post for deputy leader.

INTERVIEW: ‘Narrative of ‘prosit ministru’ will not convince lukewarm voters’

“I believe I should finish my full term [as MEP] because I have a duty towards the 64,000 voters who placed their trust in me,” Agius Saliba said, ruling out co-option to the Maltese parliament. 

Labour Party delegates last week confirmed the MEP as deputy leader party affairs with 92.3% of the vote. Agius Saliba was the sole contender for the post. Delegates also confirmed Ian Borg as deputy leader parliamentary affairs with 95.8% of the vote in another one-horse race. 

Asked how he would juggle his job as MEP in Brussels with his new post, Agius Saliba said it was important for the party administration and the deputy leader to have a strong team supporting them. 

“I always believed that a person on his own, in the face of the challenges the two main parties are facing, cannot perform miracles to implement the necessary reforms,” he said, adding that he had put forward Leonid McKay’s name for party CEO. 

McKay is a former CEO at Caritas, the Housing Authority and the cannabis regulatory authority, ARUC, and served as Agius Saliba’s campaign manager in the last MEP election. He was appointed CEO, which is the only paid post in the party administration, instead of Randolph de Battista, who was kicked upstairs as ambassador to various international organisations based in Geneva. 

“I was one of the first to put forward his [McKay] name and push for him… apart from being a friend he was always a reference point to me on social issues… I always appreciated Leonid’s quality as a team builder, which is an important quality in addition to having managerial competence,” Agius Saliba said. 

The deputy leader also spoke about his stand against abortion but insisted he will not block discussion within the party on the issue. 

“If a branch of the party comes forward with a request to push forward a discussion or a motion on abortion, I will not stand in the way; on the contrary I want this to happen because discussion is healthy,” he said. 

Asked about the abortion amendment the government pushed through in 2023, Agius Saliba said he agreed with both the original proposal that sought to allow abortion if a woman’s health or life are in danger and the final version which was watered down to allow abortion if a woman’s life is at risk. 

However, he insisted the timing of that proposal, a few weeks before Christmas, and without a proper information campaign was wrong. 

In the interview, Agius Saliba discussed the challenges mainstream political parties have to reach out and convince lukewarm voters, who are either disinterested in politics or disenchanted by it. 

He said this growing cohort of voters is not limited to young people but also includes traditional voters of the two main parties. 

“If we believe that with the narrative of ‘prosit ministru’, ‘prosit prim ministru’, ‘keep it up’ and an ‘everything is OK’ mentality we are going to convince anyone in this growing category of voters that also includes traditional voters of the two main parties… [they are mistaken] because the narrative has changed,” he warned. 

Agius Saliba defended his criticism of the timing of the Vitals magisterial inquiry conclusion, insisting its publication on the day the election campaign kicked off was intended to politically harm the Labour Party. 

He refuted the suggestion that this criticism was akin to defending former prime minister Joseph Muscat, who stands accused of corruption. 

“There is a judicial process that is still underway. Joseph Muscat like other people charged in the case is presumed innocent unless proven otherwise… I am accused of defending Joseph Muscat but I never commented on the merits of the case,” he said.