Just fabulous: this is the man who would be foreign minister come 2013
It’s strange – or perhaps not – that no eyebrows were raised in the media when Joseph Muscat named George Vella as the new shadow minister for foreign affairs.
Muscat has bent over backwards to persuade us that his party is now passionately in favour of EU membership, to the extent of handing out the EU flag to participants at Labour demonstrations, when some of them were burning that flag and reviling it just a few years ago.
Muscat himself spat madly at the thought of EU membership until he discovered what EU membership could do for him (ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you).
Now, to complete this schizoid picture, he has named as his shadow foreign minister the member of Sant’s cabinet who was most rabidly anti-EU, even more so – if that is possible – than Sant himself.
I would have expected a couple of reporters to corner Muscat on this one, but no. Of course not. Has it even occurred to them that this is an issue? Probably not.
It’s not just Muscat who needs to be cornered about appointing a rabidly anti-EU politician as foreign minister in his shadow cabinet. It’s Vella himself, too.
1. Does he hate the European Union now as much as he did in 2003?
2. If so, then what does he plan to do about it?
3. If not, what made him change his mind – a rare thing in late middle age, for anyone – and can he find it in himself to admit how wrong he was and how his efforts almost cast these islands into the darkness?
4. Why should we trust his judgement now, when we couldn’t trust it then?
5. More to the point, why should we trust Muscat’s judgement, when we couldn’t trust it then?
Here is George Vella, in an interview with Malta Today in June 2001, when he was campaigning for a No vote in the EU referendum.
“No one can accuse the MLP of being dishonest,” he says. “We might have bungled, we might have done some things the wrong way, but those are mistakes we admit and no one can say there was any tinge of corruption or dishonesty.”
Dr Vella rejects criticism that the MLP’s stand on the EU is isolationist.
“This is simply not true,” he says. “In fact, I think people have now realised that we were talking sense when we said there was another way, an alternative path, in Europe. And by the same stroke, I believe the PN has lost credibility because it insisted there was no alternative to full membership.”
Dr Vella stresses that while in government, the MLP had made good progress with the EU.
“Contrary to some impressions given, we were not shown the door in Brussels, we were treated very civilly, very democratically,” he says. “And people listened to us, to the extent that while we were in government, we signed a joint binding declaration with the EU as to what our position was.”
And is the MLP going to hold firm to its refusal to recognise the result of a referendum on the EU?
“I think the referendum pledge was a vote catcher by the PN in the beginning and I still think the mandate it got was just one to negotiate,” he answers.
“We said we would not bind ourselves with the result of the referendum. And today we know that the EU will not accept anything short of a general election, since they know we will not recognise the referendum.
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Well, our Hon. Prime Minister should do his utmost not to lose the next general election. I would say he is duty bound to win it.
George Vella will be President of Malta. That was the deal. Everything else is just a smokescreen.
Daphne, was the expression ‘no eyebrows were raised’ intended as a pun?
[Daphne – No, why? Oh, I see – George Vella has a pair of magnificent specimens.]
George Vella – the very one who, as foreign minister in Sant’s cabinet, went to Brussels to freeze Malta’s application to join the EU.
Why is it that some politicians have no shame at all?
Is Joseph Muscat sure that what George Vella did back then was in the spirit of “pajjiz li jixraq lil uliedna?”
Generazzjoni Gdida indeed.
U ejja, forgive him, miskin, ciccio2011.
Have you forgetten his enthusiasm over the EU Constitution (eventually the Lisbon Treaty) after Joe Mifsud had read it from cover to cover and assured us it did not contradict the Maltese Constitution, even if it had primacy over it?
That was in 2003-2004, after the Z-turn and without having been promised anything by anyone. Given that Malta has no foreign affairs policy to speak of the foreign ministry job should eventually lead him to Cathy Ashton’s job, . Good luck, George. You deserve it after all you’ve been through.
Kev, you have to admit it. Some of “ulied Malta” are already benefiting from Malta’s joining the EU.
Don’t start me off, ciccio2011. I know exactly how you see it. It’s my worldview you fail to see. Bottom line is: I’m not talking about short-term illusions. There’s a wider picture that includes the could-have-been, as well as the what-is and the what-is-to-be. Keep on watching the Box and you’ll be none the wiser.
The entry for George William Vella on Wikipedia makes no mention of his stance against Malta’s membership of the EU and his freezing of Malta’s application to join.
He was so vociferous about it.
BIZARRE.
If Sceberras Trigona manages to get elected, he’ll probably want to be foreign affairs minister which would be an even more ‘forward to the past’ experience.
How to lose a winnable referendum (with money-back guarantee).
1. Call it ‘fazull’ and say you will not recognise the result.
2. Don’t campaign, but appear to be campaigning.
3. Split your voters into three factions – ask them to:
a. vote No,
b. abstain, or,
c. invalidate the vote
4. After the ensured defeat, fill up with alcohol and proclaim victory, citing an odd 1956 precedence: Il-maggoranza ma qalitx IVA.
How to win a lost referendum:
Make a claim that those who did not vote or invalidated their vote, voted No.
If the referendum was winnable (by the No vote, I assume you mean), then the No vote wouldn’t have lost by such a large margin.
Secondly, your wife, as I recall, was heavily involved in the campaign. Is she exonerated from all responsibility? Had she nothing to do with the loss at the polls?
Or would you have us believe that it was all Sant’s fault?
Sharon Ellul Bonici was not very effective at garnering No votes – and let’s not kid ourselves in believing that the power of incumbency would weigh out anti-government sentiment…just look at Tunisia, Egypt and Syria.
I lay no blame, willywonk. I state facts.
Which way did you vote, kev? And how do I get a job with your organisation? I’m brilliant at report-writing, and I can spell.
@Kev…..I really like your sense of humour.
Maria, he isn’t joking. He’s married to Sharon Ellul Bonici of No2EU.
And he’s right about the alcohol.
Baxxter is not joking either, Maria.
George Vella says “…we were treated very civilly, very democratically”.
Of course you were treated respectfully. It’s the EU. But the old Mintoffian die-hards know nothing of this.