Muscat gives Grima ‘special envoy’ role

The former Labour minister for industry Joe Grima has been appointed by Joseph Muscat as his special envoy to the United Nations’ World Tourism Organisation.

UNWTO is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism – Grima himself was once tourism minister from 1983 to 1987.

The unannounced appointment marks the return of Grima to the Labour fold, after his programme ‘Inkontri’ on Labour’s One TV, was axed over his Facebook outburst against a Catholic priest who wrote a somewhat contentious obituary on former prime minister Dom Mintoff.

His appointment comes months after dubbing Muscat “masochist” for appointing former broadcaster Lou Bondì – a bête noire for Labourites the nation over – to the national festivities committee.

He described the former Bondiplus presenter as “scrap” and said he was under “no illusion that this was no new way of doing politics. This is masochism the likes of which not even Alfred Sant, who lost four elections, managed to display”.

When Muscat asked him not to continue broadcasting on One TV, it was after Grima had unceremoniously called on Catholic Herald columnist Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith to “f*** off” over his views on Dom Mintoff.

After causing a public uproar, Muscat did his best to disassociate himself from Grima, and the broadcaster submitted his resignation, saying his reaction to Lucie-Smith’s obituary was “certainly inappropriate”.

Grima had been welcomed back on One TV following Muscat’s election as Labour leader in 2008. Having once been the staunchest critic of the Nationalist Party, and a hate figure for the Fenech Adami administration, he later allied himself with the same administration. In the mid-1990s, he surprised audiences when he was given a chat show on the PN’s Net Television, after breaking ranks with Labour leader Alfred Sant.

But upon his return to One TV, his cantankerous criticism of the original ‘enemy’ restored his loyalty to Labour.

A BBC-qualified producer, Grima once served as chief executive at the Broadcasting Authority, before entering the political fray in 1976. He was elected in a bye-election for the seat vacated by the infamous Labour minister Lorry Sant.

Before being appointed minister in 1981, Grima was Mintoff’s special envoy for Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. In 1981 he was appointed minister for industry and commerce, and then tourism minister in 1983.