Of course the Opposition should not support Leo Brincat

The Prime Minister has said that the Opposition should support his nomination of Leo Brincat for the European Court of Auditors. And this when he made that nomination without consulting the Opposition, which is precisely what he should do if he wishes to make sure his nominee is somebody acceptable to them and somebody they will feel able to get behind.

When the Opposition leader said in parliament that Leo Brincat would be wrong to vote to protect a corrupt cabinet minister, because he would have that on his charge-sheet when he went before the European Parliament’s Budgetary Committee to be interviewed, the Prime Minister responded with his standard aggression and accusations of a “veiled threat”. Scratch that, what he actually said was a “vealed trett” – which sounded like something I should have been making for supper.

Those who say that the Opposition should get behind Leo Brincat now that he is “Malta’s nominee” are wrong. Their reasoning that everybody should pull together to save face in front of foreigners is straight out of the boondocks. If Leo Brincat, like Toni Abela before him and for pretty much the same reasons, is an unsuitable and offensive nominee, then he is an unsuitable and offensive nominee, and the Opposition is in duty bound to oppose his nomination rather than participate in corruption and abuse and get behind him.

Brincat, who played a significant part in the foul, corrupt, violent and oppressive governments led by Dom Mintoff and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, is a thoroughly offensive choice. It is offensive to the European Court of Auditors, and it is offensive to all decent people in Malta. It is also highly offensive to the far more suitable candidates who have been bypassed purely so that Muscat can get Brincat out of the way and clear a space in the cabinet for Jose Herrera and another one in parliament for Toni Abela (who will then probably also be given a seat in the cabinet at an official level, as a minister, rather than just sitting in for cabinet meetings as he does now).

The Opposition should not participate in this kind of abuse, cronyism and corruption. Muscat should not demand that it tags along and cooperates with his corrupt and abusive plans. The Opposition should instead demand the meritocracy which Muscat promised all the way up to 8 March 2013, and to which he then gave a two-fingered salute. In other words, a thoroughly suitable candidate for the European Court of Auditors, from the private sector or the public service.

European institutions are not elephants’ graveyards for decaying and substandard politicians who prime ministers want out of the way for reasons best known to themselves.