Labour history book omits MEP who gave up parliamentary seat for Joseph Muscat

The former Labour MP Joseph Cuschieri has taken serious umbrage at his party for editing him out of a photograph in which he appears by Joseph Muscat’s side in parliament, on the day the Opposition leader was co-opted to parliament instead of Cuschieri.

Cuschieri, who on the strength of his vacating his seat for Muscat in 2008 went on to be elected MEP, has not yet taken his place in the European Parliament. Like so many other MEPs elected in 2009, the EP has not yet effected the additional seats reflected in the Lisbon Treaty.

Writing in l-orizzont, Cuschieri was unequivocal about the rude editing of the photograph in the Labour party’s recently published book on the party’s history, which coincides with an exhibition at Mile End headquarters.

“I must admit I felt disappointed and displeased,” Cuschieri wrote at learning that at no point in the book, authored by Mario Cutajar, was he named as having vacated his parliamentary seat so that Muscat could be co-opted as Opposition leader.

“Adding insult to injury was that the historic photo in which the Opposition leader and his wife, Charles Mangion and I appear on the day of his swearing-in walking in parliament, was edited in such a manner that I am nowhere to be seen.

“I can’t understand this. I hope this happened by mistake,” Cuschieri said. “I assure Mario Cutajar and whoever is responsible for the exhibition, that if this [action] was not important to them, it surely was important to me and genuine Labourites.

“It’s a moment that will forever be etched in Labour’s glorious history,” Cuschieri gushed.

The MP also said that the similar ‘sacrifice’ by Pawlu Xuereb, who vacated his seat for the co-option of Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici in parliament as Prime Minister in 1984, had been omitted from the book.

“What Pawlu and I did was something not many in Malta have done, let alone in Europe. I think this was worth mentioning in the exhibition and in the book by Mario Cutajar,” Cuschieri wrote.

Joseph Cuschieri accepted to step down as an MP for Muscat to be co-opted as Opposition leader in parliament, but eventually went on to be elected as Malta’s sixth MEP. Apart from his snub in the party’s history books, he has had to contend with the disappointment of not taking his seat in Brussels because the EP has not yet aligned itself with the allocation of additional seats as laid down in the Lisbon Treaty.