The Prime Minister’s spokesman Kurt Farrugia is, at the moment, quite in the news. LovinMalta has suggested that he will soon be leaving his present post and taking up the chairmanship of Malta Enterprise. This job brings with it important responsibilities and speculation is rife about this appointment. Some deem it to be indicative of the fact that Prime Minister Muscat will soon be relinquishing his position to take up some other public or private job. Whether this will happen or not is still to be seen, although top EU posts are now to be excluded.

Getting back to Kurt Farrugia, this man has helped me make an important decision in my life for the near future. It all happened on the night of Sunday, 26 May – the day after the 2019 European Parliament election and the day when we all got to know that the PL had obtained a 42,000+ victory over the PN and all other contestants in the election.

The victory celebrations were already over, the smashing of Perspex had already ceased and everything was quite calm at the Naxxar counting hall, as the process still dragged on.

As for myself, I had come to know from some PL and PN people – who would be updated with every vote that was being counted – that at that stage I was hovering around the 1,700 vote mark. At the end it was to be just under 2,200 on the first count and around 2,800 on the last: nothing to write home about, but probably one of the best results in the history of Maltese elections when it comes to independent candidates.

Whatever, it was time for me to start asking myself the usual question: “Is it time for me to stop worrying and writing about Maltese politics, to do as many hundreds of Maltese have done and are doing and just find myself some nice beautiful (and cheap) house around Modica or Ragusa surrounded by peaceful olive groves and unobstructed sea-views, and enjoy this calm for what’s left of my life?”

With these thoughts in my head, at around 10 pm on Sunday evening, together with candidate Antoine Borg and his brother, I went for a pizza in Naxxar Square. 

At around 11.15 pm we went back to the counting hall. At the entrance, just after passing through the metal detector, a sizeable number of PL delegates were huddled together in conversation. As I entered, Kurt Farrugia separated himself from this group and came up to me, asking me politely the rhetorical question: “Kif mort.”

Obviously, with all the live statistics at his disposal, Kurt knew exactly “kif mort”, but he was being polite, and I answered politely: “Insomma, nothing special.”

And then he switched on his condescending and patronising tone, saying to me: “Jaħasra, if you did not criticise us so much... you even criticise me.” I answered: “I don’t criticise you” and he responded: “Yes, you do.”

To this, I retorted: “I do not criticise you, but I will certainly continue criticising Joseph Muscat, especially when arrogance continues to be shown, such as on the latest PL publicity billboard, which features a person with a disability acting, together with many others, as a backdrop to the almighty leader.”

At this point, our Kurt exploded. He came up to me, menacingly, chest to chest, screaming at me that I disrespected people with a disability. Of course, I answered him firmly and repeated that it was exactly because I respected people with a disability that I was bringing the issue up.

He continued screaming at me and I continued calling him an arrogant person.

In the meantime, attracted by the shouting, around 10 police officers had gathered a few metres away from us, Kurt’s PL colleagues – in a group – were looking on dumbfounded, PN officials Karol Aquilina and Michael Fenech Adami came out to the corridor to see what was happening and likewise a few journalists emerged from the media room.

And suddenly – the climax of the show – mighty Kurt started screaming at me: “F..k off, f..k off”.

Enthralled by the drama queen’s performance, I turned to the police officers and ironically asked them if it was OK for the Prime Minister’s spokesperson to use such language in public.

His PL colleagues, much more sagacious than our little fireball, came over and dragged the PM’s spokesperson away.

The show was over. But that fiery performance made up my mind for me. No more doubts now: I will definitely continue with my political work because I cannot stomach such arrogant behaviour.

Two small tips, Kurt, if you land this new job: 1. Never use condescending and patronising tones with your interlocutors and 2. Never tell people to ‘f..k off’.

Firstly: this will not help to attract investment to Malta and, secondly: you might get the exact opposite of what you intended with your words.

As for myself, rest assured that, cholesterol, heart attacks or chest infections permitting, until the next election in three years’ time you will find me on the front line, standing up to arrogant people like you.

Arnold Cassola, academic and politician, is the former secretary-general of the European Green Party and a former member of the Italian Parliament.