John Dalli: the ex-girlfriend in the room
Just when you thought that politics couldn’t get more tedious and brain-eroding, John Dalli is back behaving like the ex-girlfriend in the room again.
Snipe, snipe, bitch and snipe.
Make that two ex-girlfriends, because his friend and promoter in the last PN leadership election, Saviour Balzan, is doing a hell of a lot of bitching too.
And he’s got a whole newspaper to do it in: John Dalli Today.
Dalli has never forgiven Lawrence Gonzi for becoming leader instead of him when he was clearly so very much more deserving – DalliPN, anyone? – and he is making it his mission to ratchet up as much trouble as possible for the man who got there when he didn’t.
That’s right: he’s the ex-girlfriend in the room.
He seems to think that because he is more acceptable to Saviour Balzan, then he is more acceptable to the electorate. Perhaps John Dalli Today should run one its interesting surveys canvassing public opinion on whether those who vote PN would really love to have the party led by Bastjan Dalli’s brother.
Oh, and what became of the captain of the Jolly Roger and his cargo of green soap, by the way? Is he still hiding out in Libya? Is he being prosecuted?
I looked for news of these important developments in John Dalli Today, and found none – of course. Just as I found no reports on Robert Musumeci’s mistress’s cross examination in court last Tuesday – you know, the bit where she confirmed that yes, she did have a power of attorney for a Gozitan real estate developer called Carmelo Galea, who just so happens to be a lawyer though that is not what he does for a living.
Or the bit where she said that she is not asking the police to prosecute me for saying that she is a liar and a cheat who had sex with another woman’s husband when she had a baby, or that she was renowned for having sex with policemen – because of course, she didn’t want to be cross-examined about that.
John Dalli Today is not going to step on its MEPAWatch man’s toes, is it? Ghandhom disgruntled non-backbencher bhal dak! Ma tarax.
John Dalli should thank his lucky stars he got a Big Fat Job as a European Commissioner, with a Big Fat Salary, a Big Fat Transition Allowance when it ends and he comes back to Malta to bug us all, and a Big Fat Pension so that he can bug us all without worrying about money, and perhaps even slip John Dalli Today a euro or two to pay the bills it can’t possibly be paying through the advertising revenue it doesn’t have.
It would be very kind of John Dalli to help bankroll John Dalli Today. Saviour Balzan would be very grateful. He’s just bought himself a nice, big Saab and is starting a family (you see? I was right despite his denials and hysteria and the suggestion that getting your woman pregnant is slanderous).
Just as I was right about John Dalli taking the chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika (and Savour Balzan’s friend) off to Brussels with him to form part of his cabinet, when Saviour wouldn’t go himself.
And then Balzan has the nerve to run a front-page story about the secretary-general of the Nationalist Party failing to fill in one VAT return in 2006. Perhaps John Dalli Today should start a campaign to have him rewarded for this with a job in the Maltese EU Commissioner’s cabinet, as Vassallo was.
Dalli is fixated on becoming leader of the Nationalist Party, and he seems to be employing a strategy of deliberately undermining the current leader so as to bring the remote possibility closer. When he was made EU Commissioner, he should have retired from party politics and stuck to the day job. There are some boundaries you shouldn’t cross when you hold the important post of EU Commissioner.
The man was at the Nationalist Party’s mass meeting on the Granaries on 20 September, for heaven’s sake. What was he doing there? Doesn’t he have any sense at all of how an EU Commissioner should behave? Clearly not. It’s all about him.
VOTE DALLIPN? Inza**ab. Now that would a nice T-shirt.
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You obviously know much more than me on the man but am I also wrong in thinking that he was much better to the Maltese economy than the present minister?
[Daphne – No. He was just fortunate to be there when the economy was doing well. It’s not that great being finance minister in the thick of an international crisis.]
According to a report on timesofmalta.com Scerri Herrera also denied knowing Saviour Balzan.
Wasn’t Balzan at Scerri Herrera’s home – the one she shares with her lover, not the one she shared with her husband – a few days away from her hearing a court case involving Balzan?
That would make her denial a lie – is that the fourth or the fifth instance of perjury in the current defamation case alone?
Maybe Dalli will start aspiring for an even fatter pay-cheque as a lobbyist after his stint serving the people as commissioner.
Daphne, your blog is a gallery of (some of) the Shady People of Malta: Saviour Balzan (ommi ma!), the Herreras, John Dalli.
It is good that people understand what’s going on behind the scenes. It is good. Keep it up.
Things are (rarely) what they seem.
I do not know much about politics but it seems to me that Dalli, if he were ever to contest for PN leadership, would get very little support from the party delegates if he does or says anything which undermines the Nationalist Party in government.
Commissioners and even presidents of the European Commission have often continued to be publicly identified with their political parties and to intervene in national politics, up to a limit, through statements and appearances at events.
Former President Prodi was practically holding together the opposition coalition in Italy during his last few months in office in Brussels.
As for the Nationalist Party, I don’t think it makes any sense to unnecessarily attack those who are not personal supporters of the current party leader.
Those who do not share the leader’s views are possibly a minority but without them (and many others who are not Nationalists at all) the party will not win elections.
[Daphne – Hence the prime minister’s words about Robert Arrigo this morning. BUT a balance must be struck between keeping them on side and allowing them to destabilise the whole ship out of spite. If John Dalli had a seat in parliament, I suspect at this stage that he would be quite capable of doing what Mintoff did to Sant, though of course it would be a strategic error of mammoth proportions, because you don’t increase your chances of becoming leader by bringing down the government.His only chance of becoming leader now is by helping make Lawrence Gonzi – and thus the Nationalist Party – unelectable. Surely you see that if Gonzi wins (and what a feat that would be) the next election then Dalli hasn’t got a hope in hell of ever achieving his ambition as party leader? So effectively, he can’t possibly want the PN to win again, and it’s a fair assessment that he and John Dalli Today will be doing whatever they can between now and then to make sure that Gonzi is not successful. ]
I fully agree with you, Daphne, especially your last paragraph about him being at the mass meeting on the Granaries. He shouldn’t be mixing in party politics now he’s a commissioner.
It smacks to me of a conflict of interests as he is supposed to be representing all of Malta in Brussels, not just the Nationalist Party surely?
[Daphne – He’s not representing Malta at all. He has nothing to do with Malta now, that’s the point. He represents the European Union.]
Well, legally yes, he doesn’t represent Malta. But that is just a diplomatic nicety, a piece of EU sophistry. Do you really believe that the commissioners have no say in how EU policy is set?
[Daphne – What does the one have to do with the other? No, it isn’t a diplomatic nicety or a piece of EU sophistry, whatever you might mean by that. It’s a fact: John Dalli does not represent Malta. He is an EU Commissioner. He acts for the European Union, as a whole.]
What I meant was that despite being EU commissioners, it’s not exactly a state secret that commissioners also put forward their home country’s position and lobby for posts.
Legally you’re right, commissioners all act together as the EU Commission, but that is such a blinkered position that it doesn’t reflect reality.
[Daphne – EU commissioners do not put forward their own country’s position. They can’t afford to be seen to do so. Imagine if Joe Borg, as Fisheries Commissioner, had fought Malta’s position in the tuna wars. They have to be capable of a leap of imagination that divorces them from their own country. Dalli appears unable to do that.]