PL executive to approve Joseph Cuschieri’s EP candidature

After testing the waters and facing the Socialists' group ahead of the European Parliament's vote on the citizenship resolution, Labour's head of delegation Joseph Cuschieri informed the party he wanted to run for the European Parliament elections again.

Speculation ran wild over the past few weeks on whether Cuschieri would be on Labour's list of candidates for the May European elections, especially after Labour's executive this week confirmed former ONE journalist Charlon Gouder and incumbent Marlene Mizzi as candidates.

Party insiders told MaltaToday that Cuschieri had been uncertain whether to contest again, primarily concerned by the candidature of former prime minister Alfred Sant and former ONE journalist Miriam Dalli.

"Both Sant and Dalli have a good chance of being elected. As the head of delegation, Cuschieri expected to have a bigger push from the party although the party always wanted him to run. He is our head of delegation after all," the sources said.

One source claimed that Cuschieri kept his cards to his chest until he could gauge the party's reaction.

"There never were any doubts the executive would approve his candidature," another source said.

According to the sources, Cuschieri made up his mind after his "very active participation" in the European Parliament for the removal of any direct reference to Malta in the cross-party joint resolution on 'EU Citizenship for Sale'. 

Cuschieri, together with Mizzi, lobbied long and hard within the Socialist Group, home to the four Labour Maltese MEPs in the European Parliament.

"He worked relentlessly to obtain the S&D's support and the group in fact pushed amendments to remove any reference to Malta from the resolution. This week's experience convinced him to run again," the sources said.

Most probably, Labour's full list will be finalised with Cuschieri's candidature. The other approved candidates are MP Deborah Schembri, Cyrus Engerer, Peter Cordina, Lino Bianco, Ivan Grixti, Clint Camilleri, Mario Farrugia Borg and Fleur Vella.

Cuschieri, Sant, Dalli, Engerer and Mizzi are considered to be among the favourite top five.