GUEST POST: Dalli’s ECJ case is a farcical waste of time and money
This is a guest post. It was written by invitation.
Dalli says he brought his case before the Court of Justice in Luxembourg to prove his innocence. Of what?
The alleged $60 000 000 bribe may have lit the fuse, but Dalli ultimately self-detonated. Let’s not forget that, in resigning rather than being fired, Dalli ensured that he is paid more than most ordinary people can hope to earn in a decade. Had he been fired, he would have been paid nothing at all. That’s why he took the resignation option and did not say to Barroso, “Then fire me.”
With Dalli, the bottom line is always money. You can count on that.
In allowing Dalli to resign rather than firing him, which is clearly what he deserved and what Barroso most wanted to do (who wouldn’t?), the EU Commission President allowed his Commissioner a modicum of dignity and a healthy payoff. Dalli repaid that consideration with a knife in the back (what a surprise), a constant stream of increasingly hysterical insults and offensive allegations, tantrums in the international press and now, a law suit covered by the world’s news agencies, in which his swimming-trunks and his cosy friendship with a seaside kiosk-owner and vendor of mqaret have featured prominently.
Dalli took the money, of course, but he has done nothing to salvage what dignity Barroso did his best to allow him.
He doesn’t deny keeping that mqaret vendor and part-time circus promoter on as his sidekick – henchman and fixer, really, or having that same Silvio Zammit broker European Commission meetings with industry representatives.
He does not deny holding those meetings outside the European Commission’s approved framework of relations with industry, or meeting those industry representatives, in his formal role as EU Commissioner, at Peppi’s Kiosk in Sliema in the presence of the owner of that kiosk, Silvio Zammit.
Does it really have to spelled out in Malta, and to John Dalli in particular (Zammit’s total lack of finesse and understanding of correct procedure is taken as given; he can’t be expected to know any better) that no European Commissioner should ever have any sort of meetings at a place like that, in those circumstances?
Do so many people in Malta really need help in understanding that EU Commissioners should not have henchmen and fixers brokering their meetings, with or without a fee, and holding them at their place of business?
Why does it have to be explained that somebody like Silvio Zammit had no place at any European Commissioner’s meetings at all?
Dalli himself said that he met a tobacco industry representative – a man from Philip Morris – while wearing his swimming trunks by the pool at a hotel in Gozo, so there’s nothing to deny there. Leaving aside the rather unsavoury imagery, that meeting was outside the European Commission’s framework for relations with industry. Dalli knows this. He said so himself.
So, exactly what is Dalli’s case? We have yet to hear from him, or from anyone else connected to him, what it is he is trying to prove. He is the one who brought this case to court, who built up public expectations, and now that the much-anticipated court hearing is well underway, he has made no case at all.
Already much that he has said today in court is wrong, not least his claim that his first call on leaving Barroso’s office that fateful day was to his family. It wasn’t. He famously called Joseph Muscat, who was then leader of the Opposition – and Muscat, unable to contain himself as usual when he has something to boast about, gave the game away.
The crucial point is this: Dalli says he was forced to resign from his post, yet Barroso had the power to fire him and didn’t. So there isn’t any case to be brought at all.
Right now, Barroso is probably thinking: “I wish I’d fired the bastard in a blaze of publicity.” Yes, it’s a shame he didn’t, but too late for that. Like the prime minister who inflicted him on the European Commission in the first place, Barroso made the quintessential mistake of expecting a bad person to behave well, or to do the decent thing when precisely the reason he was got rid of – by both men – is because he is fundamentally indecent.
Why would Barroso have forced Dalli’s resignation rather than firing him? It was and is within Barroso’s gift as President of the European Commission to fire any Commissioner on political grounds. It would have been far more expedient – and, given what we know now, far more appropriate – to fire Dalli than to have the matter drag on like this. It is not as if Dalli has spent these last two years diligently working to clear his name.
That time has been punctuated by further scandals involving international fraudsters, secret trips to the Bahamas and hundreds of millions of dollars, in which his name has made the headlines again and again. Dalli can’t claim the coverage was a conspiracy, or that Giovanni Kessler and Lawrence Gonzi, Simon Busuttil or any number of his favourite obsessive targets was in bed with, say, The New York Times. He generated all of that publicity himself with his behaviour.
Are we meant to take him seriously when he says there were no legal grounds for his dismissal? As Barroso said, labour laws don’t come into play with EU Commissioners. No legal grounds are necessary. EU Commissioners must be like Caesar’s wife. Once their reputation is sullied, once there are grounds for suspicion, once they hang around with kiosk-owners and hold meetings with industry representatives by their holiday pool in their trunks, that’s it.
Talk of bribes of many millions then becomes almost a side issue. The fact remains that what we have here is an EU Commissioner who thought he could behave as though he were starring in some low-budget Mafia film: lounging about by the pool in his swimming-shorts while representatives of tobacco multinationals are ushered in to meet him by a semi-articulate goon who runs a circus and a kiosk in his spare time.
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One of the most telling details in today’s hearing is that the alleged bribed wasn’t mentioned. It was Dalli’s general behaviour, messing around with Silvio Zammit and holding offsite meeings in an unorthodox setup, that led to his downfall.
Il-garra gejja w sejra fl-ahhar tinkiser, jghid il-Malti. Min jaf kemm il- wahda gietu tajba qabel marritlu zmerc din, u min jaf kemm ghadu qed ihawwad mas- Sur Priministru tal-habi u mhux fl-interess tal- poplu li jkun jaf x’inhu jigri minn wara dahru. Iz-zmien itina parir imma kellu bzonn ma jilhaqx ifotti dak kollu li bena gvern Nazzjonalista. X’bidla dik hej! Proset eh lil kull min kien ghami bizzejjed biex jafdah.
Next enthralling episode of the EU Commissioner from Malta saga: Karmenu Il-Guy.
Thanks Daphne and guest for an excellent expose’ and update of this new phase of Dalligate.
Hear, hear.
John Dalli is a disgrace. He was totally incoherent, not even capable of using the correct tenses in reported speech. No one has ever embarrassed this country and its people as he’s been doing.
His speeches are consistent with those of compulsive liars and schemers.
And John Dalli, has never but never since that strange phone call to Joseph Muscat given a satisfactory explanation of the need for it. He has never confirmed that he did call him. It was Joseph Muscat who spilled this since it seems he felt important. Probably John Dalli is cursing that Joseph Muscat opened his big mouth.
And once in court, everything comes out. More than one wishes. And John Dalli did not mention this incident that he called Joseph Muscat. Why?
Furthermore, it transpires now more than ever before, that John Dalli was ill advised of how to tackle his predicament. He forgot that he was in a deep hole, and dug further. No rope is long enough to pull him up now.
And as someone else has commented in a previous post, there is Youtube coverage of a SuperOne programme whereby John Dalli is confirming that he resigned. No more no less. He never mentioned that he was forced to do so.
That’s bloody true but we knew it anyway. At the risk of repeating myself, I said in a previous comment on this site that when Dalli went to Brussels it would all end in tears. How come we could all see it coming and he couldn’t?
Put very well indeed, I must say.
This is the gist of the matter.
I wonder how Maltatoday will spin this one.
No comments yet. They will sleep over it and give us their wisdom tomorrow.
They will delegate the task to Matthew Vella.
Somehow John Dalli always reminds me of the bad guy in the James Bond movies. He gives the impression that he is high and mighty and invincible but in the end always loses out to the main actor. He may be rich but definitely worthless without honesty and integrity.
The James Bond baddies have an evil charm and panache. Dalli is a pimp with the social graces of a potty and the charm of a skunk.
An expert analysis – by someone with a keen investigative brain and a clear way of expressing the conclusions arrived at.
Thanks also to Daphne for inviting the post.
An excellent contribution. What is Dalli trying to achieve? Does he want compensation for dismissal when he is being paid anyway?
I wish Barroso had fired him. At least Dalli wouldn’t be paid in the meantime and with the evidence against him, chances are he wouldn’t receive anything at all.
Waste of time and money?
I am morally convinced that Dalli BA, John does not see it that way:
One important thing here is to stir in the Maltese that traditional sense of distrust of anyone who is European, and to get the Maltese to take the side of Dalli BA against Barroso the ‘barrani.’
As we were told, Dalli BA wants to prove that he will not bend over and take it.
It is an interesting coincidence that the case is being heard during the world cup with England and Italy back home. The Maltese can now unite behind Dalli BA, John in Dalli BA vs Barroso. I have already put a huge flag out of the balcony with the face of the (former) EU Commissioner, and I intend to organise a car cade if he wins his case.
But I detect another possible strategy here.
Dalli BA is suing the President of the Commission for unfair dismissal. His case is about such arguments as:
1. He did not know what the meeting with Barroso was about beforehand.
2. He was not allowed by Barroso to see the OLAF report and Barroso only read out to him from a summary of the report.
3. He was asked to resign within 30 minutes, without being allowed to take legal advice, or else he would be fired.
Dalli BA is not exactly arguing his innocence in the case alleged by Swedish Match – he is not countering the “unambiguous circumstantial evidence” contained in the OLAF report. That is not the subject of his case.
But if the European court were to establish, against all logic as I see it, that Dalli BA had been unfairly dismissed because, let us say, he was not given enough time to consult a lawyer (not a valid reason for a politician as I see it), then I have the feeling that Dalli BA – as well as the prime minister of Malta, Muscat Joseph – could use such a decision to make us believe that Dalli has been acquitted from the main allegations made in his case by Swedish Match.
With Dalli, the bottom line is always money. You can count on that.
“I saw Dalli and he told me, ‘We have a problem. I need to contact my wife. I need to see about my rights. My allowances and whether I have a pension.’”
Mejjet bil-ġuħ
The questions put by Dalli’s lawyers were pathetically amateurish, as if trying to get some petty hoodlum or small time embezzler off on some ridiculous technicality. Trying to catch the witnesses out on some insignificant detail or other.
They were torn to shreds by the concise, procedurally correct, as-per-protocol responses of said witnesses, who clearly have NOTHING to hide.
Dalli according too the early updates by the Times, was breathing heavily, as if under stress/duress. Seriously? Could the man stoop any lower?
Povra, povra Malta.
Who did Dalli call first – his wife or Joseph Muscat? He didn’t call the prime minister first. He said so himself in court yesterday.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ntCEX3azw
Reading the newspaper comments boards they are full of bile against the EU and the Commission. The superficiality of these folk is embarrassing. They see this as some form of anti-Malta action.
If John Dalli were innocent he would have issued a terse denial and done everything in his power to clear his name. He would have done this silently and in the background. Instead the street brawler hit out in every which way using all the third tier media to publicise his ‘claimed innocence’. he thought, like his new master, that he could manipulate the institutions – but he is fighting his battle in the real world – not in the village of Malta.
If he had chosen the dignified way out he would have had his day in court and his defence would be so watertight it would have embarrassed the EU and brought down the Commission with it.
Instead we have a situation where he has done much more damage to our reputation and dragged us, the country, through the mire – needlessly. The EU Commission prepared a perfect defence – and they didn’t have to try very hard – they stated facts.
The minute the brawler chose to hit out was the prime signal that he was not innocent. The hearing is proving what an evil man he really is.
Now what we want to know is why he called Joseph Muscat first and why he went to the Bahamas.
What we do know is that what worried him most when he was confronted with the evidence (thin as it may have been) was his allowances and pension. If ever there was a damming statement that was it.
Il-vera hanzir bil-guh! Tal-misthija – jaqqq!
Does Joseph Muscat still expect us to believe that he had nothing to do with the halting of the John Dalli case investigation?
The calls for his resignation should be as loud as the church bells on a feast day, yet he is still being allowed to trample on anything and anyone that comes his way.
My opinion is that they have teamed up in striking secretive deals with dictators and becoming richer in the process, then Dr. Joseph Muscat will keep his promise of fleeing using the power station project failure as an excuse, leaving the mess to be cleared by the PN.
The EU legal team should do the right thing and cancel Dalli’s pension retroactively. Taxpayers should not reward commisioners for their greedy behaviour. They need to set example.
The shit has hit the fan. Dalli tired to shame others but only managed to shame himself instead.
Remember the GM Food and how Dalli was saying he was against, whilst doing the exact opposite when it came to legislate?
Did he meet someone in his trunks as well on those occasions?
Have you heard the latest joke courtesy of John Dalli: “It would be unethical of me to comment on the case that has yet to complete its hearing.”
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/dalligate/40895/by_not_forcing_me_to_sack_him_dalli_accepted_his_voluntary_resignation__barroso#.U7wRI_mSxzs
His behaviour as EU Commissioner will be remembered, amongst others, for his disregard of ethical norms.
Heed this lesson and learn it well:
You get nowhere being reasonable with shite.
Absolutely right. The whole thing should have been put to Nico the Parrot.