Rachel Attard speaks to Minister Chris Cardona, the first contender to have submitted his candidature for next month’s Labour Party deputy leadership race.

What credentials make you a good PL deputy leader for party affairs?

What I can tell you is what kind of credentials make a good deputy leader. Primarily, you need to have experience within the party, how the party structures work, how the party reacts to what is happening in the country and how to lead an electoral campaign with a good, strong manifesto that will lead to victory. At this particular moment, we need another important component – to act as a link between the government and the party.

So do you have all these credentials that you just mentioned?

That is up to the Labour Party delegates to decide. I feel that I have a chance to win the election. I’ve been a minister for the past three years, my performance within the government have produced good results, I was involved in the drafting of the electoral manifesto for the last general elections and I presented a strategy for this country for the coming 10 years. Now I can say that I have time to focus on how the Labour Party can have another strong manifesto and a strong electoral campaign to win another election.

 

If you are elected, what will you change in the party?

Networking is going to be my priority. I need the party delegates to network more with the public so that the party will have a lot of support in the general election. In a general election, we forget about the government and Opposition because, primarily, we have a race between two parties, although nowadays I would dare say that it is more of a presidential race. We experienced this in the past elections between Dr Alfred Sant and Dr Lawrence Gonzi, and Dr Joseph Muscat and Dr Gonzi. So the role of the deputy leader is to do the necessary groundwork in the party so that the leader will come across as strong and, eventually, beat his other contender.

But how is all this related to networking?

Networking in all this is indispensable. The party delegates are the most loyal people that the party has and with their ideas and involvement will be able to pass on the party message. They will also make sure that the public is aware of the work that the Labour government is carrying out.

Are you contesting this election with the intention of becoming party leader?

Absolutely not.

 

This contest for the same post is a re-run of what happened three month ago. You and the other contenders did not run then but you are running now. Doesn’t this make you second-division candidates?

I was the first person to approach Konrad Mizzi and told him that he was the ideal person for the party at that point in time because he has excellent management skills which the party needs. I was one of those who believed that Konrad would have done a good job. Ironically enough, it was he who approached me and told me: “since I am not going to contest again, I want you to consider this post.” I had no intention of contesting, because I believed Konrad would have survived this political turbulence (Panama Papers scandal) but this did not happen.

So this means you have Minister’s Mizzi’s support...

Yes. In fact, he is helping me and supporting me. If I win, I will seek his help when we carry out the necessary restructuring. I am also evaluating the programme that Konrad had for the Labour Party and he will definitely be one of the main protagonists with me.

 

In the latest Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat took away part of your ministerial portfolio, created another ministry and appointed Dr Manuel Mallia. Isn’t this a message from your leader that he has lost faith in you?

No, it’s the opposite. I had a ministry in which I had a parliamentary secretary and the results we obtained together deserved to be promoted to a ministry. The Prime Minister spoke to me and told me that he wants to give me additional responsibilities that will be announced soon.

What do they consist of?                 

Right now I can’t tell you, but what I can say is that they have potential to further our economic growth.

Some people argue that you got so annoyed that you were relieved of part of your ministerial duty that you reacted by being the first to announce your candidature for the post of deputy leader. Do you deny this?

It is not my character at all. The Prime Minister spoke to me before taking this decision and I am sure that both Minister Herrera and Minister Mallia will do a good job.

Is it true that you are living in a flat that is owned by Henley and Partners?

Not true at all. This is a big lie that a person said about me. This is absolutely not true.

So if you are asked to table the contract of your flat, will you do it?

I have no problem whatsoever with tabling any document. I am a public person, so I am bound to publish not when I deem fit, but when questions are raised about me. But then I expect the same behaviour from my counterparts and not have to wait for months for Dr Beppe Fenech Adami to publish documents on what he did in his palace or else take years to pay for works carried out at one’s house, like Dr Mario de Marco did.

What sort of campaign will you have amongst the delegates?

It will be a one-to-one campaign. I want to focus on the direct involvement of each and every delegate that there is in the Labour Party.

In the past three years, the Maltese economy has continued to grow. What do you attribute this success?

Primarily to our workers and we can see this in the record on unemployment which we never saw it before. Our worker wants to work and is working. Secondly, our enterprise, which is strong, and which throughout the years has managed to invest in a number of niche markets, and all this gives the country a lot of challenges – not only in the manufacturing sector, but also in the tourism, life sciences and aviation.

 

Will you be leading the party leading the party with the mentality of ‘eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth’?

No I would not put it in that way. However, there should be a person in the Labour Party that should be the bulwark.

So we might hear you say again the phrase that you have used in the last PL general conference, “If you hit us with a sword, we will hit you back with an axe”?

I used that phrase in a metaphorical sense and I do not regret using it, and I have said it often that if politically we are hit by a sword, we will hit back with an axe. It does not mean that you should go out in the street and hit with a sword and an axe. So, yes, I believe that there should be someone in the Labour Party that will be the bulwark to protect it from the unjust PN attacks on Labour Party individuals.

But even the PL MP Franco Mercieca in Parliament spoke against hatred language used by politicians and how we should avoid it?

Yes, he deplored the language, but did not deplore the mentality…

So what you are saying is that you will not find any problem using a similar metaphor again?

Yes, if need be, I will use it again.

You are criticised for the way you live your private life. Don’t you think that this is tarnishing your credibility with the delegates and the public?

There are parts of the social media that do not want certain people to take high-ranking positions in the Labour Party because they know that with them their position is threatened. You are referring to Daphne Caruana Galizia, and she knows that if I am elected as the Labour Party deputy leader, she will have a problem continuing with her attacks on Labour people because I will be the one who defends them.

But you will also defend Glenn Bedingfield who attacks other individuals personally?

Glenn has his own portal and I am against any personal attacks coming from any corner of the media.

Even if they come from your own party?

Personal attacks should not be accepted and they are not coming from the party but from individuals whose attacks are based on lies.

So you wouldn’t consider telling Glenn, who will seek to be elected in the next general election, to stop his personal attacks so as to give an example of what you believe?

You can’t stop something which is independent. In fact, the PN did not stop Mrs Caruana Galizia even though she was one of the main reasons why the PN lost the last general election. The PN did not stop her but today she is its spokesperson.

What has the Panama Papers scandal meant within the Labour Party?

For the Labour Party, what had to be said has been said. All the information came out, and decisions, together with the necessary actions, were taken. Today, the ball is in the PN’s court and we are seeing PN members implicated, among them Dr Francis Zammit Dimech and Richard Cachia Caruana, who is one of the strategists in the PN. Let’s see if Simon Busutill, like Joseph Muscat, will take a decision on Tonio Fenech who Finance Minister and is now a chairperson or consultant to a number of companies that are in tax haven countries.

Are you going to win this election?

What is important for me is that whoever wins it gives the Labour Party a second term in government so the 10-year plan will be implemented.

So if you do not make it, you will not create problems for whoever wins this contest?

No, because the party is bigger and I will continue to give my contribution within the party.