Malta’s incoming Labour Party Deputy Leader has some ambitious plans for the party, looking to finally create a clear distinction between party and state to allow the former to become a stakeholder in its own right.

“My vision for the party is to develop gradually. I know that it takes a changing culture to a certain extent, but I’m optimistic that we will manage to do so for the labour party to evolve into a stakeholder in its own right. “

“When Labour was elected to government in 2013 it was something totally new for people of my generation. It was new and we had to come to grips with it.”

“My vision is for the party to evolve, not just as a check and balance to the government and not just to scrutinise the operations of the government, but to be a player in the adequate fore and structures where policy is concerned,” Daniel Micallef told Lovin Malta in an interview.

However, with the Labour Party only taking action against officials held in high regard like Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri once they became indefensible, questions on the party’s credentials on tackling these issues will continue.

Micallef disagrees, insisting that message from himself and Prime Minister Robert Abela is clear, checks and balances will be introduced into the party to provide it with more power to scrutinise the government.

Asked whether he believed removing Mizzi and Cardona was a good thing, Micallef said:

“I have my own opinions and I express them in the right fora. I think the decisions speak for themselves. The votes were communicated, the numbers were communicated, and the decisions were taken,” he said.

However, Micallef was insistent that enough action has been taken against former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, even if he was the leader during a period plagued by corruption allegations.

“The situation is totally different. If we had to look at things, the most popular prime minister this country has ever had shouldered the biggest responsibility a politician can,” he said.

Micallef was clear that these issues were not an indictment of the Labour Party’s ‘movement’ that kicked off before 2013.

“The PL till has a large support base, and there must be a good reason. People are not stupid. And if we try to depict, anything related to this last seven years as totally negative the people out there know that it’s not true.”

“Now where the narrative of the movement comes into play, when this concept was introduced at first it was ridiculed, if you remember well. But if you speak to the voters out there, I still get people to this very day who speak to me about how important it is for them that the party not only speaks in this way but acts in this way.”

“This is not a party where people like me were born in the party or have been in the party of 30,40,50 years. But it’s a party for anyone with goodwill and is willing to participate. That’s why I subscribe to that because it’s my kind of politics. It’s what I believe in,” he said.

You can watch the full interview on Lovin Malta’s Facebook page.

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