Alfred Sant, Head of the Maltese Labour Delegation at the European Parliament, today warned the Maltese Government that the Nationalist Opposition will be ready to undermine the Maltese Presidency of the European Union in the same way it ensured that Leo Brincat was voted against in the European Parliament. The Nationalist Opposition is only interested in its puerile political calculations and does not care about the integrity of our country, he said in a statement.  

The former Prime Minister and Labour leader said that Leo Brincat’s vote reminded him when 30years ago as President of the Labour Party he witnessed a campaign of misinformation by the Nationalist Opposition at the European Council aimed at denigrating the Maltese Government and Malta’s image abroad.

Dr Sant said that initially the Head of the Nationalist Delegation at the European Parliament had told him that he expected Leo Brincat to be considered on his political and financial merits. So much so that Mr Casa had organised meetings between Leo Brincat and various EPP MEPs.

MEPs from the EPP who had met Mr Brincat were impressed by his professional integrity in politics and finance.  “But the Brexit result eventually brought about the postponement of Mr Brincat’s hearing after the Summer Recess. It was during this period that MEPs were given damaging information linking Mr Brincat to the Panama scandal.”

It was clear during the first vote that the EPP had changed their attitude towards Leo Brincat, he said.  Two days later, Mr Casa confirmed this with Dr Sant telling him it was because of the Panama story. He said that he had managed to get the EPP to postpone their decision till the following Monday so they could perhaps moderate their views on the matter.

However, two days later Mr Casa passed the message that the PN itself had decided for its MEPs vote against the nomination of Leo Brincat at the European Parliament. This inevitably confirmed that the EPP would vote against the Brincat nomination, forcing other political families to do the same not to be outflanked by the EPP on a matter as explosive within the European Parliament as the Panama papers scandal.