Former President Ugo Mifsud Bonnici had warned Alfred Sant in 1996 that raising energy tariffs across the board would lead to suffering by the most vulnerable sections of society and that he could not afford losing Mintoff as he would not manage to see his five-year term through.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici writes about his conversations with former Prime Minister Alfred Sant in his upcoming autobiography – Konvinzjoni u Esperjenza (Conviction and Experience). He elaborated on the subject in an interview with The Malta Independent.

“When Alfred Sant visited me at the palace I warned him about the consequences removing VAT and raising energy tariffs indiscriminately. I wanted to give him some background information because I was a member of the cabinet that had first pondered the idea. Tarcisio Mifsud (Enemalta’s former financial controller) had come up with the proposal when Ninu Zammit was the Minister responsible for the corporation. We had said during a cabinet meeting that if we needed to save Enemalta we should not do it in a way that would hurt the vulnerable. We had to introduce social scales.”

Dr Sant seemed to acknowledge Dr Mifsud Bonnici’s advice but his reply was not satisfactory. “He said I was right and that he would take up the matter with the General Workers Union to find a way to reduce the tariffs later on. I said ‘no,’ you are in charge and you have to see it that things are done right the first time round.”

The former President says he told Alfred Sant that the elderly and parents would be the ones to suffer the most. Mintoff had also caught on to this and said as much during his heated Parliamentary debates. “He started attacking Sant over it.”

Dr Mifsud Bonnici also warned Sant that he should not risk a rift with Mintoff. “Alfred Sant was a very correct and polite person but he did not have the same political sense as Mintoff. I told him that Mintoff was like Shakespeare’s King Lear - he had served as party leader for close to 38 years. I asked him how he could expect to do something in Mintoff’s district – where the former PM used to get 12,000 votes – without telling him, especially when Mintoff was still such a major force in the party.”

“I said he had a responsibility to listen to Mintoff and that he needed his vote. I told him that it did not make a difference to me who was in government but he had a five-year mandate and he had to see it through. He (Sant) replied that Mintoff was too stubborn, which was true, and that Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici let him have his way, which was also true. He said he would not let Mintoff tell him what to do." 

Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici’s autobiography will be launched on 18 March.