Following last week’s political mayhem after Labour Party secretary Jason Micallef was spotted on a YouTube clip saying a Labour government will be a government for Labour supporters, with all that this implies, it is now the turn of Mr Micallef’s counterpart, PN secretary general Joe Saliba to be at the centre of the media spin.

For Mr Saliba has been spotted enjoying a yachting holiday as guest of PN supporter and building contractor Zaren Vassallo.

In political terms, this almost beats the controversy that erupted in France when Nicolas Sarkozy enjoyed a short holiday in Malta on Vincent Bollore’s yacht. Of course, given Mr Saliba’s past as precincts officer at the university and his current building programme at PN headquarters, there is almost an affinity between him and building contractors.

And while the PN media had made much of a Labour delegation being accompanied by some pro-Labour contractors on a trip to Dubai, this time Mr Saliba cannot claim he went with Mr Vassallo to get work.

Labour website maltastar.com reported last night that the mega-contractor who is currently hosting Mr Saliba on board his private yacht for a holiday in the Med, is a major government contractor who has been awarded some of the most lucrative public tenders over the past years.

The party left Malta in the early afternoon on Thursday 16 August from Ta’ Xbiex yacht marina. Saliba boarded the yacht, which was berthed opposite the EU Commission’s Malta Office. The yacht is named “Charlene”, after Mr Vassallo’s daughter.

Mr Saliba and Mr Vassallo later dropped anchor at the Port of Syracuse, and spent the weekend in this city. On Monday morning, the yacht left Syracuse, on its way to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where the holidaymakers cruised along the Italian mainland’s west coast.

The contractor in question is a major activist of the Nationalist Party. He has close ties to the Nationalist Party, and to Prime Minister Dr Lawrence Gonzi’s family. PN insiders commented that this contractor is frequently seen inside the corridors of the party’s headquarters.

The PN secretary general will be back at his desk at PN’s headquarters in Pietà on 3 September.