Leo Brincat

Labour spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Information Technology

The thing that emerges most is the weakness of Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi. If one sees the letter that Dr Gonzi sent to John Dalli, one will see that the PM absolves him from guilt on the IRISL case, while on the Tourist Resources Limited one, Dr Gonzi even accepts John Dalli’s suggestion to take the case in front of the Auditor-General. On his part, in the attachment to John Dalli’s resignation letter to Dr Gonzi, he says very clearly that the attacks on him were not only coming from the Labour side but from behind as well. It is usually people from your own side that are behind you. Was this a case of conspiracy or not? If the Labour Party had not raised the issue, then no action would have been taken on the case and it would have been buried. Labour notes that John Dalli has had various cases which have raised suspicion over the years he has been in a senior cabinet position, ever since the AMS case when he was still parliamentary secretary at the end of the eighties. The John Dalli case has not been clarified. Lawrence Gonzi has not excluded that it was not a frame-up, but at the same time he has whitewashed John Dalli.

Harry Vassallo

Chairperson, Alternattiva Demokratika

The Cabinet will be missing that element with the most experience in the finance sector, therefore in this sense, the Cabinet is now lacking such expertise. The reasons leading to John Dalli’s resignation are not that clear, and we await further clarifications.

Vince Farrugia

Director General, General Retailers’ and Traders’ Union

We do not wish to discuss the merits of John Dalli’s resignation. However, the question of investment promotion and Malta Enterprise is very important since it is vital for local entrepreneurs. We were very happy with John Dalli since he had experience as an entrepreneur. We are sad that John Dalli will not continue be able to contribute at a cabinet level. We are fully confident that his successor at investment promotion, Austin Gatt, can continue to do this job effectively. He has already shown that he has the right skills to do this when he tackled public enterprises.

Charles Mangion

Labour deputy leader for parliamentary affairs and main party spokesperson for Finance

The Prime Minister has treated the resignation of a senior Minister as if the people were imbeciles, without giving any satisfaction as to the reasons why John Dalli resigned. One notices the manner in which Lawrence Gonzi has exculpated John Dalli in the IRISL case while accepting John Dalli’s suggestion to take the Tourist Resources Ltd case to the Auditor-General. More significant was the statement by John Dalli in his resignation letter that the attack came behind, that is, from the PN side. John Dalli must have felt insecure to make such a statement. One would have expected to know what really happened and that the people would have been treated with respect. In this manner, the Prime Minister did not treat the people in a mature way.

J. G. Vassallo

Opinion-writer

This is not the end of the story. If remarks about abuse of power were made, an inquiry must be held. It must be done transparently and by somebody who is independent. In Malta we have too many years hearing about similar stories without learning what was behind them.

Wenzu Mintoff

Opinion-writer and Labour candidate

The fight of the PN leadership left a certain amount of bad blood and this has left an impact on the issue. On the actual merits of the case, John Dalli merited to be held accountable. The decision has been unduly procrastinated. There was a lot of pressure for this step to be taken but at the same time Lawrence Gonzi let himself be led by others. I believe that John Dalli was pressured to resign; I do not think he was too keen to do so on his own.

Joe Grima

Opinion-writer and former Labour Minister

When suspicions of wrongdoing surround people in high office fairly or unfairly, correctly or incorrectly, the duty of people under that sort of cloud is to resign. John Dalli is an experienced person in politics and he will no doubt have his day in court. However, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi deserves every opportunity to a success of his Government and to carry out his plans in the national interest. Dr Gonzi’s tasks are unlike those of any other Prime Minister we have had. As member of the EU his job is much more complicated and therefore he deserves to be able to meet Malta’s new challenges without having to look after local problems of the kind raised by the accusations levelled at one of his primary Ministers. The Prime Minister could not have chosen a better successor in Michael Frendo. Dr Frendo is experienced in Foreign Affairs and especially in European Affairs, which are now the fulcrum of Malta’s future.

Edwin Vassallo

Parliamentary Secretary

I do not have a specific comment to make. He did what he had to do. When I was his parliamentary secretary at the Finance Ministry, I worked very well with John Dalli. It was perhaps of the best experiences that I have had till now. After the electoral campaign for the PN leadership, everybody went his separate ways because we were assigned at two different ministries. I might have met him not more than three times since then. Life has to go on.

Lino Spiteri

Opinion-writer and former Labour Finance Minister

No comment. I am a columnist, I do not give comments.

Alfred Mifsud

Opinion-writer and former Labour candidate

No comment. I am abroad.