Former Prime Minister and PL MEP Alfred Sant said that the Nationalist EP delegation, led by David Casa, helped outgoing PL Deputy Leader Toni Abela in his bid to become member of the European Court of Auditors.

Dr Abela’s nomination was rejected by 17 votes against and nine in favour during yesterday’s ‘grilling.’ Many of the questions fired at him were related to the infamous ‘blokka bajda’ case that came to light before the 2013 general election. A recording had emerged of Dr Abela describing how a PL club leader stumbled upon a barman carving up “a white block", which was interpreted to have been referring to drugs.

Alfred Sant’s comments to Newsbook contrast with the message currently being sent out by the Labour Party, which has laid the blame of Abela’s rejection solely on the PN.

“His grilling was poisoned by gross misinformation,” Dr Sant said. He said the campaign against Abela had started before the last general election and, after laying dormant for two and a half years, had resurfaced in the past few days.

Dr Sant said the allegation that Dr Abela had turned a blind eye when someone was found carving up a block of cocaine at a PL club was “totally false.” The allegation had been totally discredited by the police, Dr Sant said, but it was used again before Dr Abela’s grilling. “The MEPs ended up asking more about this case than about Dr Abela’s competencies.”

The former PM said the anonymous sources that worked against Dr Abela during the grilling would probably do the same thing in plenary. “A very dirty game was played against Toni Abela.”

Asked about the role of PN MEPs, Dr Sant said these had backed Abela. “In fact David Casa and another member of the PN delegation accompanied Dr Abela to meet members of the EPP.” He said the anonymous sources that worked to destroy Abela “were not organised like a party.”