Several Labour MPs and officials fiercely opposed the appointment of Marisa Micallef as adviser to leader Joseph Muscat, and it was only after a 30-minute explanation of the reasons why the PL could benefit from her defection that the resistance has seemingly subsided, party sources told The Malta Independent on Sunday.
This does not mean that the red carpet was rolled out for the former PN candidate, Housing Authority chairman and pro-PN columnist when she walked into Labour Party headquarters and took up her office on the third floor, right in the heart of the party’s administration.
Some top party officials even expressed their irritation that she was given a swipe card to enter this part of the building, when others who have served the party for years have no access. Dr Muscat’s trust in Ms Micallef is still to percolate down to other party officials, the sources added.
Although last week there was a unanimous approval of her appointment at executive committee level, the measure of disgruntlement among top party officials is still substantial. Party delegates attended a meeting at which they too endorsed Ms Micallef, again after a good measure of persuasive tactics.
Yet, sources said that her endorsement could just be an outward sign of appeasement when under-currents are already building up. Officials who are known to have opposed her move are adopting a wait-and-see attitude before making further moves. “They want to know how she will operate and what her level of influence will be, before deciding on what to do next,” the sources said.
Although the “shock of the revelation” has passed and these MPs and officials have started to mellow to the idea of having Ms Micallef as part of Labour, there are still some who look upon her with suspicion and doubt, believing that her move was opportunistic, and not because she really believes in Labour’s ideals.
“While some are seeing her as an asset to the party, many others are not too sure whether to trust her. In the past, there have been people who have crossed from one party to another out of conviction, but in her case it was not political ideals which that made her join Labour,” the sources said.
What has irked the “dissenters” is the fact that other people with a Labour background have offered their services to the party in the past, but have been turned away.
“These are people who do not attend mass meetings and wave Labour flags but who would be able to lend a strong helping hand to the party in terms of strategy and knowledge. And yet the party pushed them away, only to bring in a former PN candidate who is still to prove her loyalty towards a party she has written against in the past,” the sources said.
The only positive element to come out of Ms Micallef’s appointment so far is that a number of other people have made contact with the Labour Party. “These are people who would not normally have wanted to be seen as being supportive of the PL,” the sources added.
Yet it is still too early to gauge what her input is going to be, and whether these are people who really want to follow in Marisa’s footsteps or who were simply testing the waters to see what Labour has in mind.
Dr Muscat is trying hard to persuade Labour MPs and officials that Ms Micallef’s contribution will help swing other disenchanted Nationalists towards Labour, but other top officials are not too sure this will happen.
“We still have to learn to trust her,” the sources said.
This newspaper tried to obtain Ms Micallef’s comments, but when a call was made to Labour Party headquarters, our details were taken by a secretary who said that she would pass on our request to Ms Micallef. We did not receive a return call. The telephone numbers – mobile and home – on which she used to be contacted had an engaged tone every time we tried to call.
[email protected]