Labour Party’s European Political Family Turns Entirely Against Joseph Muscat
The Labour Party’s European parliamentary group, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), have entirely turned against Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, after voting in favour of a resolution calling for his immediate resignation.
Over 84% of all MEPs who cast their ballot voted in favour of the resolution, with just 26 voting against it. Beyond the Labour Party’s four MEPs (Miriam Dalli, Alex Agius Saliba, Josianne Cutajar, and Alfred Sant), no single S&D member stood with them.
The 22 MEPs who voted with the PL MEPs hail from either Brexit or far-right parties within the European Parliament.
S&D’s decision to completely abandon Muscat, who was once the golden boy for the political grouping, is also even more embarrassing for Miriam Dalli.
Dalli is held in extremely high esteem by her S&D colleagues having been elected as the group’s Vice-President in the European Parliament. However, it seems that she was unable to convince a single colleague that Muscat deserved to stay on till 12th January.
On the left side is the S&D (four red dots are PL)
The news shouldn’t have been a shock, with an S&D spokesperson for the resolution said that Malta had become a “symbol for corruption”.
Muscat appears to have been first given the cold shoulder by the Party of European Socialists (S&D’s European political party) as early as last week’s EU Council meeting, where he was noticeably absent from a PES meeting.
Questions sent to OPM over his absence from the meeting remain unanswered.
The debate was called after the arrest and charge of Yorgen Fenech in connection with the assassination, and the murder’s links to the Office of the Prime Minister.
A fact-finding MEP delegation came to Malta following the country’s descent into a political crisis after the Office of the Prime Minister was heavily linked to Caruana Galizia’s assassination.
The delegation has repeatedly called for Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s immediate resignation with fears that he could interfere with investigations.
However, Muscat has remained stubborn in insisting that he stay till 12th January.
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