Konrad Mizzi is not the typical Labour Party man. For one thing, he struggles to string a full sentence in Maltese, often resorting to English in mid-sentence and using expressions which are not very easily understood by the average Labour supporter. To endear himself with the grassroots, he has tried to make up for this with his outbursts, some of which have taken place in Parliament where he has become famous for his tantrums.

But he has one important advantage, and this is his close friendship with Joseph Muscat. It started before the election, so much so that he was the new face of what was then known as the Labour Movement. Needless to say, he was entrusted with coming up with the fairy-tale that duped so many people into voting Labour – that he could build a new power station in two years flat. This was a promise that was not fulfilled, but it was too late for the switchers to see it for what it was: the joke of (the first part of) the century.

The Joseph-Konrad friendship was consolidated after the election, and they showed it to one and all in their ice-bucket stunt. When there was a crisis in the health sector, the prime minister resorted to his close ally once again to give him a super ministry – health was added to the already vast energy sector. Yet, even here, the results are failing to materialise pretty badly, with people still kept in hospital corridors overnight – even Labour’s billboard-face Ramona Frendo wrote on Facebook about staying overnight in a hospital corridor, but it’s ok since Labour is in government, I guess. Only God knows how she would have reacted if the PN was still in power.

Of course, this latter incident is small when compared to the trauma so many families went through when their loved ones died in hospital corridors. But it’s been nearly three years since Super One reported something negative about Mater Dei Hospital.

Apart from the power station debacle and hospital problems, Konrad Mizzi will also be remembered as the minister whose wife is bagging €13,000 a month while serving as a representative for Malta in China. What she is doing, we do not know. What she has achieved for Malta, we do not know either. What we do know is that the €13,000 she pockets (earns is not the right word to use here) is nearly as much as what the PN ministers used to get all together in one month in the notorious honoraria dispute Labour complained so much about in the previous legislature.

Konrad Mizzi will soon make another step forward in his political career. He will be anointed as the new deputy leader for party affairs, a position that was literally created for him by none other than his friend Joseph, who forced his party to make statutory changes to accommodate his preferred choice. All in a matter of one week, which started with the dumping of Toni Abela out of the party in spite of his latter’s reluctance.

Konrad Mizzi will not be contested. Nobody would dare show some opposition to Joseph Muscat when he is this kind of mood. But you will remember that Labour had sharply lambasted the PN when Lawrence Gonzi sought confirmation as party leader and nobody contested him. I guess it’s ok for Labour to do something it criticised others of doing.