Malta’s nominee for the European Court of Auditors voted to protect a corrupt government minister last night

That will not go down well at all with those who are watching. The European Court of Auditors was set up to fight fiscal corruption in European Commission systems and to act as a check on it. It will not take kindly to Malta’s putting forward a nominee who voted to protect a government minister after he was discovered to have set up, in secret, a money-laundering structure in Panama and New Zealand, after he took office, with the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.

And that is quite apart from his sordid history in the governments of Dom Mintoff and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici in the 1980s, including episodes like this, when he rose to his feet and cheered wildly as Prime Minister Dom Mintoff gave a rabble-rousing speech with threats of violence, saying that he would arm his supporters with weapons to fight the Opposition.