This Is What Joseph Muscat Says About Himself In His Latest Book
It’s been a while since Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has given an interview, but he broke the mould for his new book, published by the Labour Party to mark his 10 years as Labour leader. He spoke at length to radio presenter Arthur Azzopardi about his journey to the pinnacle of Maltese politics. Here’s what he said.
1. He likes his own company
Growing up as an only child, Muscat had to learn to get by without constant companionship, and this shaped his personality for the rest of his life.
“I am not someone who constantly needs to be in the presence of others and I have no problem spending long stretches of time by myself,” he said. When I was studying in the UK, I spent an entire week in the library working on this project and I don’t think I spoke to anyone apart from my landlord during that time. I did not mind in the slightest.”
2. He wouldn’t have voted Labour in the 1980s
As a St Aloysius student in the turbulent 1980s, Muscat witnessed firsthand the Labour government’s battle to take over Church schools.
“I tried to understand why these people who had suffered so much in the 60s were now forbidding me to attend my school of choice,” he said. “Political conflict set in and, if I had a vote back then, I am certain that I wouldn’t have given it to the Labour Party.”
3. He runs many important decisions past his wife
Muscat praised his wife Michelle for having an “analytical and critical” mindset and confirmed he runs several important policy decisions past her before taking her.
“Michelle and my father are my biggest critics, but her criticism really helps me because when you are in a position of power, it is hard to find people to give you objective criticism,” he said. “There are two main types of people – those who agree with everything I say as though they are doing me a favour and those who disagree with everything I say as though to show how clever they are. It is very rare to find people who are ready to sit down and tell you what they truly think and who don’t take it as a big tragedy if you disagree with them.”
4. His kids are hardly fans of hunting
Muscat confirmed that his twin daughters Etoile and Soleil hold animal rights close to their hearts and rush to inform him whenever a protected bird is shot down.
“Whenever BirdLife comes to speak to me, I always tell them what a great job they’re doing with my kids, because they’re the first people to inform me whenever something related to hunting pops up.”
5. ‘The Church is more progressive than many think’
Despite angering the Church with several of his progressive policy positions, Muscat confirmed that some of his most progressive ideologies were actually fermented by people within the Church.
“We have in a prevalent idea in this country that organisations, from the Church to political parties, are homogeneous entities, but I believe that every organisation is composed of people,” he said.
6. He once thought he had gone blind
Recalling his UV-induced temporary blindness in 2014, Muscat confirmed there was a period where he feared he had gone permanently blind.
“The true moment of fear hit me when I started feeling completely disorientated, when I was hearing voices and smelling voices but had no idea where I was,” he said. “I thought I had gone blind and the doctors were just trying to find a way to break the news to me. When I heard a doctor enter my room, I told him to be straight with me and tell me what my situation was. However, he promised me I will regain my vision the next afternoon and indeed, that’s what happened.”
7. He’s constantly on the alert for backstabbers
Asked whether he considers himself to be Macchiavellian, Muscat said that Prime Ministers have to constantly assume people around him are trying to overthrow him.
“You cannot be a fool, you must understand the world and context of situations and assume that others are trying to take your place,” he said. “A democracy isn’t like a festival where people always cheer you on, and you will always find critics – some just and others unjust.”
8. Alfred Sant helped him out by taking a backseat
Muscat praised his predecessor Alfred Sant for taking a backseat in politics after his appointment as leader, saying this allowed him to mould the party as he wanted.
“He told me it would be best for him to just focus on his parliamentary work and in fact he didn’t even attend parliamentary group meetings for a year,” he said. “I appreciated that gesture a great deal.”
Muscat’s comment could be interpreted as a jibe at former Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, who has maintained an active role within the PN following Adrian Delia’s appointment as leader.
9. He used to be friends with Simon Busuttil
The two are nemeses now, but Muscat confirmed there was a time he and Simon Busuttil used to be friends – back when the two were MEPs and into his first year as Opposition leader.
“However, our relationship then deteriorated and I now have no relationship with him at all,” he said. “I will let others analyse whether this was his fault or mine, but all I know is that I don’t feel I have any sort of relationship with him.”
He said it is too early to tell how his relationship with Adrian Delia will develop, but confirmed it is shaping up to be one of “intense political confrontation”.
“Delia is not a politician in the classical sense of the word and thinks very much like a lawyer,” he said.
10. He thinks Mintoff was secretly a capitalist
Dom Mintoff is held in regard as a hero for Maltese socialists, but Muscat said he believes the former Prime Minister actually did more than most to facilitate the spread of capitalism in Malta.
“It was Mintoff who facilitated unprecedented foreign direct investment from Germany and other countries, and this spurred the industrialisation of Malta,” he said. “Mintoff had once told a conference of British businesses that he can ensure them they won’t have to deal with strikes in Malta because he had co-opted trade unions into his Cabinet. It made sense to speak like that to promote the country at the time.”
11. He doesn’t think much of anti-corruption battlecries
As Opposition leader, Muscat made an effort to ensure the party wasn’t just condemning government corruption but focusing on bread-and-butter issues.
“I will allow the people to judge the PN Opposition’s focus on corruption and governance issues, but all I will say is that I didn’t keep banging on about corruption from dawn till dusk when I was Opposition leader,” he said. “Had I done so, public perception on corruption within the PN would be higher than it is.”
12. His moment of economic ‘ingenuity’
Muscat believes his most “ingenious” economic policy was to slash energy tariffs for consumers before the construction of the Delimara power station.
“It would have been easy for us to tell people to wait for the power station to be completed, but we decided to immediately pass on consumers’s savings to them from beforehand. That way, people got to know psychologically that their bills were going to be reduced and they made their own calculations. This kickstarted an economic avalanche – people suddenly had more money in their pockets and a virtuous circle was born.”
13. ‘My kids asked me if they could live at nannu if I went to jail’
Muscat opened up on his family’s experience living through last year’s Egrant saga – when Daphne Caruana Galizia claimed that his wife was the secret owner of an offshore company exposed in the Panama Papers.
“I couldn’t believe my ears when I started hearing that Egrant belongs to me or Michelle, and I had no idea how to react when I saw Simon Busuttil’s surreal press conference which was intended to destabilise the country,” he said. “When you get attacked for a political decision, you start asking yourself whether you could have taken a better decision, but this was a pure fantasy and all I had to disprove it was my own word.”
“It really impacted me. I will never forget driving through Mosta and past the PN’s club which had erected a banner of myself and my wife sitting in jail. From my sideview mirror, I could see my children looking at this banner, and when we went home they asked me whether they could stay at nannu if I went to jail. From there, everything started to take on a whole different dimension.”
14. He has no plans for the future yet
If he sticks to his word, Muscat will be out of a job within the next four years. However, he was coy when asked about his plans for life post-leadership.
“I have no plans in this regard. I will take this step once I see that I have accomplished what I have set out to do and decide that I can move on…”
What do you make of the Prime Minister’s answers?
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