Sources close to PL Deputy Leader Toni Abela have told this newspaper that the veteran lawyer was “manipulated” by his own party when he was nominated to serve on the European Court of Auditors.

Dr Abela’s nomination was rejected with 17 votes against and nine in favour during Tuesday’s ‘grilling’ by MEPs on the European Parliament’s budgetary committee. Many of the questions fired at him were related to the infamous ‘blokka bajda’ (white block) case that came to light before the 2013 general election. A recording had emerged of Dr Abela describing how a PL club leader stumbled upon a barman carving up “a white block", which was interpreted to have been referring to drugs.

A source in the PL said it was obvious right from the start that the 2013 story would come back to haunt him and damage his chances of approval as an auditor. “The PL is trying to pin the blame solely on the PN, insisting that this was the result of the work carried out anonymously before the grilling, but it was clear that his chances of being approved were slim at best. Why did we nominate him if we knew that he would struggle, and possibly fail, as in fact happened?”

Immediately after the vote, PL MPs and party officials took to Facebook to sing Toni Abela’s praises, insisting he did not deserve what he got, and condemn the PN for ‘working against the country.’ But the source interpreted this as being the PL’s way to defend itself and make it seem as if the reasons behind Abela’s nomination were genuine.

The blame game

In its attempt to lay the blame at the PN’s feet, the Labour MPs and officials recalled how the PL had supported Tonio Borg’s nomination for the post of European Commissioner back in 2012. But it seems that they conveniently forgot to mention the fact that the PN had endorsed the nomination of the current Maltese EU Commissioner – former PL Minister Karmenu Vella – two years ago.

Another reason why the sources believe that Toni Abela was manipulated was the fact that the election to appoint his successor as Labour deputy leader for party affairs was actually held long before Tuesday’s grilling. When Tonio Borg was nominated for European Commissioner, the election to find his successor as PN deputy leader was held after the grilling, not before.  “Labour jumped the gun. Instead of waiting for Toni Abela to complete the process at the European Court of Auditors, they chose to hold an election earlier. It is not normal that this happens, so the party showed extreme haste to get Toni Abela out. It backfired when Abela was rejected.”

The sources said that the obvious reason why Prime Minister Joseph Muscat wanted the deputy leader post vacated was to replace Toni Abela with Health and Energy Minister. Dr Muscat, in fact, had the Labour Party statute changed so that a serving MP could contest the post of deputy leader for party affairs, for the first time in the party’s history. As expected, Konrad Mizzi was uncontested and won the approval of 97% of the PL delegates. His election came just one day after the Panamagate scandal erupted, with the minister embroiled in the harshest political controversy of this legislature after it emerged that he had set up a company in the secretive jurisdiction.

More woes for PL

The sources explained that the Labour Party could face more woes in the coming days. While Konrad Mizzi has been technically elected Deputy Leader, he cannot assume the role until Toni Abela resigns. And Dr Abela himself confirmed to The Malta Independent yesterday that he has not yet given up his seat in the PL.

Contacted by phone, Dr Abela confirmed that he was technically still deputy leader. “Well, what can I say. There was a press release issue by the PL. Take a look at it.”

We told Dr Abela that we had seen the press release, and that it makes it clear that Konrad Mizzi would only fully become deputy leader once he (Abela) resigned. Dr Abela kept telling us that we should refer to the PL statement and would not say why he had not yet resigned and when he would do so.

A source suggested that a disappointed Toni Abela could theoretically block Mizzi by refusing to resign, even if such a scenario is unlikely.

War of words

The PN and the PL yesterday engaged in the usual war of press releases, one blaming the other for the outcome of Dr Abela’s grilling.

The PN said Joseph Muscat had made a wrong choice, adding that the Labour Party would do well to try to understand the real reasons that led to the rejection of Toni Abela’s nomination. It also said it was offering its assistance to the government with the aim of finding consensus on Malta’s candidate to replace Toni Abela.

The PL blamed “a poisonous campaign” that led to the rejection of Dr Abela’s nomination, strongly implicating that the PN was behind it.

But the reality is that the ‘’blokka l-bajda’ case has been splashed all over the internet since 2013 and there is no way that MEPs grilling him would not have found out about this little fact. EU-oriented newspapers have also said from day one that Abela would face a very tough test, specifically because of the blokka l-bajda issue.

What is certain is that the latest political ‘tragedy’ has led to a rise of the ‘us and them’ mentality, with many labourites calling on Facebook for the removal of nationalists from the public service. One PL official even went as far as calling nationalists ‘traitors.’