It turns out that it was Alfred Sant’s vote that saved Leo Brincat and allowed him to just barely scrape through last Monday’s European Parliament Budgetary Committee grilling, even though the head of the Labour Party delegation is not an actual member of the Committee.

In fact, Dr Sant is not even one of the Committee’s substitutes, but he somehow managed to find himself a seat from which to cast a vote in favour of Mr Brincat, who was one of his former ministers. Ironically, Dr Sant had voiced his opinion that Minister Konrad Mizzi should have resigned following the Panama Papers scandal revelations.

The vote after the Committee grilling is normally taken by the Committee’s principal members. But when for some reason the principal members cannot attend, members from a group of substitutes are chosen to replace missing members.  No Maltese MEP is a member of the Committee proper, nor are any on the substitute’s list.

When a circumstance arises in which the Committee fails to find substitutes, however, the Committee Coordinator can choose any other MEP to cast a vote. Any MEP could have been called in for the job, but for some unknown reason Dr Sant was selected to cast a vote. It is not clear what led to such a decision but it appears that the Socialist members of the Committee did the Math and realised they urgently needed someone to vote in Mr Brincat’s favour, short of which his nomination might have had a very different ending.

At no point did the Labour Party mention Alfred Sant’s vote. French MEP Anne Sander had also been called in to replace an absent Committee member.

Mr Brincat’s nomination eventually narrowly approved with 11 votes in favour, nine against and one abstention.