Former Prime Minister and current MEP Alfred Sant has stuck to his guns regarding his call for Konrad Mizzi to step down from his post, a call which he had first made two years ago after the Panama Papers scandal came to light in 2016.
Following the exposure of that scandal, Sant had said that whilst Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had shown “admirable prudence and fair play” on the issue, it was not right that a decision that “should be clear and inevitable” be placed on the Prime Minister’s shoulders. In fact, Sant had unequivocally said: “In his own interests, both political and personal, his family’s interests, that of the Labour party and the government, as well as the national interest, the decision that should be taken quickly is one to be taken by Konrad Mizzi, and this is to resign.”
Back then, Mizzi did not heed these calls to resign. Today, two-and-a-half years later, a number of new implications and accusations surrounding the former Energy Minister have come to light. Asked in an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday whether, given everything that had happened since his initial statement, he still believed that Mizzi should step down, Sant said: “The answer is always going to be the same on such a question: I have said what I had to say, and I have nothing to add.”
For the last five years, Sant has served as a MEP and he is, in fact, the Labour Party’s delegation leader in the European Parliament. However, with a new round of MEP elections approaching next May, the 70-year-old former Prime Minister had people on tenterhooks as to whether his name would be on the ballot sheet. In fact, Sant admits, it wasn’t originally his intention to contest again: “My idea was to bring the curtain down”, but there were certain people, such as the Prime Minister himself, and ideas that eventually convinced him to submit his candidature.
Malta is currently experiencing an impressive economic boom, and Sant does not subscribe to the notion that this is merely a bubble that could burst at any point. “A bubble bursts after six months. Since independence, there has never been real economic growth that has been this strong and this sustained”, he says before adding that this same growth has been forecast for the next two years as well.
Sant does sound a word of caution, however, saying that the government has to be careful in how it manages this growth, for the time when it inevitably decelerates. Construction is one of the industries that needs to be managed more effectively, he says, whilst the gaming industry is also having a strong effect. Sant sees a sense of irony in the nature of the gaming industry: “On the one hand, it is the industry which has created the biggest reputational problems for the country and which has been the main cause of the rise in housing expenses, whilst on the other hand the industry is complaining about these same reputational problems and these same housing expenses.” He adds that this contradiction is not the result of the country being in a bubble, but because the growth that the country has been experiencing is without precedent.
A lot of this growth, says Sant, is fuelled by the services industry, which is a sector developing globally. Indeed, the government is now trying to ride that by embracing the Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence sectors.
Asked for his thoughts on the Financial Technology (better known as FinTech) sector in general, Sant said that there are two trends of thought surrounding this sector. On the one hand, more and more young people are beginning to embrace this technology, and are looking for countries that can offer a better environment for their ideas, whilst on the other hand, certain banks, ministers and even EU countries are taking a much more cautious approach to the sector.
In his view, it is good that Malta starts to move into sectors such as these where the country can have a competitive edge. However, Sant does note that this is yet another sector that falls in the services industry bracket and says that Malta is shifting into this industry too much. Still, while he believes that the country needs to diversify towards certain non-service sectors to avoid having an unbalanced economy and to also improve its educational sector in order to have more graduates in IT and vocational fields, the Labour MEP believes that the country should maximise its potential in attracting new sectors and integrating them into its economy.
Are the government’s priorities where they should be? Sant praises the way in which the government has gone about sustaining economic growth and social equality, but adds that more priority needs to be given to the environment and to managing the said economic growth. Lastly, he says that the market cannot be allowed to drive itself, calling this possibility “dangerous”.
Over the past five years in the European Parliament, Sant has spoken about a myriad of issues that pertain to Malta and also Europe as a whole. The dynamic between Malta and Europe is one that has come under scrutiny as of late, but does Malta get treated differently from other countries due to its size? Sant thinks so, and he draws a comparison between the European response to scandals such as those of Pilatus Bank and those surrounding much larger banks. He said that, comparing the case of Pilatus Bank where, although it is a comparatively small bank, there were large and systematic controls implemented, and then at cases involving much larger banks where there were far fewer systematic controls: “How can you not think what I think?”
These institutions, Sant says, find it easier to boast that they’re taking some form of action if it is against smaller countries or entities rather than taking such action against big countries and large entities. Regarding the power that larger countries hold, Sant said that Jean-Claude Juncker, who hails from Luxembourg, had once alluded to this when he said: “What can you do to France?” after the mega-nation was given more leeway following certain budgetary deficits that it had a couple of years ago.
Asked about the criticism that the European Banking Authority had made regarding the Malta Financial Services Authority and the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, wherein the EBA had noticed several shortcomings in the operations of both entities, Sant said that he hoped the EBA was working with diligence and in regardless of the size-factor mentioned above. However, he expressed his doubts on this: “What has happened vis-a-vis Deutsche Bank and Danske Bank? Has the EBA looked into Belgium and Denmark’s FIAU equivalent with the same scrutiny as it did with Malta’s?”
Another type of criticism brought up against Malta at European level is regarding its controversial scheme to sell citizenship; the IIP scheme. Firstly, does Sant agree with the concept of selling citizenship in this way? “Personally, I’m not really in favour of it – but I think any government has the right to implement such a scheme if it feels so inclined,” he says. Despite his personal views on the scheme, however, Sant describes the EU’s criticism of it as “total hypocrisy”. There are countries which, he says, give citizenship in total concealment and try to justify this by saying that it contributes to the country’s security or its economy or its political situation. “Is it acceptable then? Even though there is no transparency at all? For me, it’s not”, he says.
On the subject of ‘golden visas’ and residency permits, Sant says that Malta did not invent these things and that they have been going on for years. He cites the United States as having a similar system, along with several other European countries, and says that schemes such as Malta’s are more transparent as there are clear criteria applicable for the granting of citizenship. Therefore, he says: “This hullaballoo about Malta, and a couple of other countries, is crass hypocrisy.”
More specifically, criticism has been levelled against Malta by MEPs from Sant’s own European group – the Socialists and Democrats group – through MEPs such as Ana Gomes, but he is not moved by these at all. “In politics, you find people who like to shoot from the hip”, he says. “They have their bugbears and they follow them, and it’s easier to follow them by criticising other countries rather than their own.”
Immigration, meanwhile, is another subject on which Sant has recently spoken and, indeed, he recently said that he does not agree with NGOs taking up the mantle and operating in the Mediterranean. Asked why he thought this, he said that his belief stems from the thought that these NGOs are facilitating human smuggling rings. “All smugglers are having to do is throw boats into the sea and wait for them to be picked up”, says the former Prime Minister.
He adds that he thinks there is a need for more intelligence on smuggling operations and that, if need be, military action should be used to destroy these smuggling rings. However, the main problem when it comes to immigration, according to Sant, is that there is not a single political ideal on immigration within Europe. Most definitely, according to him, the Dublin II regulation is one of the things that need to be reformed.
“The fact that countries receiving irregular immigrants or asylum-seekers have to keep them has caused unacceptable burdens and has led to the extreme right – or left – to start to move forward across Europe,” he says.
The classic example for him is Italy, but in Spain as well, Sant points out. Up until two weeks ago, everybody was saying that Spain had no extreme right political presence. Now, however, extreme right wing political party Vox has made strong inroads into Andalusia and is poised to form part of the government.