It is one of the chinks in Labour’s armour. If allowed to grow, it might turn into something nasty that could cause harm to the party in government.

Candidates from the same political party who contest the same electoral district do not normally see eye to eye. They are not competing with candidates from the opposing political party, but with politicians on the same ticket. We all know how important that Number 1 on the ballot sheet is, and so it is common that candidates from the same party selfishly work for their own benefit.

Konrad Mizzi and Chris Fearne are one example of this kind of situation. In the last election, Fearne had the better of Mizzi by over 400 votes in the fourth district, winning the internal battle between two of Labour’s giants and going on to be elected also from the third district on the first count. Mizzi contested the fourth district only.

But the antagonism between the two goes beyond this. Let us remember that for a time Mizzi was one of Labour’s deputy leaders, a position he occupied for a very short and tempestuous two months at the height of the Panama Papers scandal.  

Now, it is Fearne who is one of the PL’s deputy leaders, a position he achieved in spite of not being close to Joseph Muscat’s inner circles as Mizzi is.

Until the Panama storm, Mizzi was being touted as one of the contenders for the party leadership. Now it is Fearne who is seen as a possible successor to Joseph Muscat.

Mizzi and Fearne have exchanged roles on another level. Mizzi was health minister in the past legislature before being replaced by none other than Fearne after the Panama debacle. Fearne held on to the post after the 2017 election. And here is where the overlapping, not to say confusion, becomes even more evident.

Mizzi spent enough time as health minister to usher in the Vitals Global Healthcare deal, a multi-year concession given to a company with dubious credentials to run three public hospitals, and which has now been taken over by Steward Healthcare. And, although the VGH deal reached under Mizzi immediately raised questions and suspicions, now it is Fearne who has to deal with the unfolding drama as doctors take industrial action and more doubts emerge on the initial agreement as well as the more recent transfer of the concession.

But then it was Mizzi who last Monday told Parliament that VGH remains the concessionaire of the health services of the Gozo, Karin Grech, and St Luke’s Hospital, in spite of the acquisition of Steward Healthcare System. All this happened while Fearne is sweating bricks in order to reach some compromise with the doctors on the way forward. In other words, it is Fearne who has to mop up the mess created by Mizzi and the perception is that he does not like this one bit.

It is clear that Fearne is quite uncomfortable with the way the VGH deal was reached by Mizzi and even more ill at ease with the more recent developments. Yet Fearne has to defend his government and, by default, even his predecessor even though the underlying notion is that, were it for him, this deal should not have been reached in the first place.