Former prime minister Sant annoyed at suggestion of ‘Nationalist president’

Former prime minister Alfred Sant has taken umbrage at a suggestion by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil that the next President of the Republic should inspire national unity, or perhaps, hail from the Nationalist camp of politics.

In 2014, Joseph Muscat will be appointing a new President to take over from George Abela, the former Labour deputy leader chosen by Lawrence Gonzi, as a token to national unity after four consecutive presidents appointed from the Nationalist parliamentary group.

Censu Tabone, Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, Guido de Marco, and more controversially Eddie Fenech Adami, were all party grandees who from 1987 onwards were appointed president: the first three by Fenech Adami himself as prime minister, before he was given the honour by successor Lawrence Gonzi in 2004.

Abela was appointed a year after Gonzi was re-elected by a thin 1,500-vote, relative majority.

In his New Year's message, Busuttil hinted that the next choice for president should not be reserved for a member of the Labour old guard kicked upstairs, as has been common political practice. "It should inspire unity, as did the choice of George Abela," Busuttil said.

"Unity should not be given just lip-service, but must be lived. It has to be built on strong values and principles," Busuttil said.

The choice of president is taken by the Prime Minister, usually in consultation with the Opposition.

But Sant will have none of it, writing in his inewsmalta.com blog that the prime minister's choice should be final and not dictated to by the Opposition. "The balance has yet to be levelled after all those years where people who simply were not Nationalist-leaning, were set aside," Sant, a candidate for MEP in the forthcoming June elections, said.

Sant said the Nationalist government's choice of George Abela, who resigned as Labour deputy leader in 1998 after Sant decided to announce early elections, was down to "occult reasons best left unsaid" and as a palliative to the Gonzi administration's "limitless arrogance".

"I'm annoyed at the PN's insistence that since the last President was a Labourite, then the next one should be a Nationalist... before [Abela] the last presidents were from the PN camp. Correct though their behaviour was throughout their tenure, every single choice increased the scale of what was political divisive. What's more divisive than a government appointing its former prime minister as president?" Sant said, referring to Eddie Fenech Adami's appointment in 2004.

Sant said that the discussions at the time, during which he served as Opposition leader, was that the decision was final. "I know this because I was there," Sant said.

Lawrence Gonzi had first proposed George Abela for the presidency back in 2004, ahead of Eddie Fenech Adami, but Labour had taken an ambivalent, non-committal position on the choice.

Abela's resignation was still a fresh wound at the time for Labour, then led by Alfred Sant. Abela had resigned upon the party general conference's decision to go for early elections.

In 2004, Labour had proposed its own list of nominees, namely former Ombudsman Joe Sammut, Yvonne Micallef Stafrace, wife of former Labour minister Joe Micallef Stafrace, and Joe Curmi, a little known former senior civil servant.

Gonzi had communicated his decision to opt for Fenech Adami to then Labour deputy leader Charles Mangion. Gonzi had insisted that the decision was final and non-negotiable. Gonzi faced a great deal of flak for his choice, while Fenech Adami publicly acknowledged the resentment surrounding his appointment in his inauguration speech.

Both Gonzi and Abela, who have known each other from their university days, were considered to be very good friends.