Mario ‘Stasi University of East Berlin’ Vella to be new governor of the Central Bank

The Prime Minister has named Mario Vella as the new governor of the Central Bank of Malta.

You’d have thought that with Alfred Mifsud out of the way, Muscat would take the opportunity to nominate a fit and proper person for the post. But no. If it’s not going to be his former employer at Crystal Finance and the Labour Party’s TV station (Mifsud was chairman there), then it’s going to be the man who ‘helped’ him with his doctoral thesis.

This is what Muscat considers to be meritocracy and the talent pool: using high public office to thank those who helped him in his personal life, regardless of whether they are fit for the post or not.

This is the second public post to which Muscat has appointed his old mentor. With days of becoming Prime Minister, he gave him the top post at Malta Enterprise. And in typical Mario Vella fashion, we have heard nothing of him or anything he’s been doing in the last three years since then. Until now, of course.

What qualifies Mario Vella to run a central bank in the Eurozone? It’s probably the years he spent in East Berlin in the 1970s, having been specially selected for ‘education’ at the Stasi-controlled university there, where all the students were Stasi-vetted and Stasi-approved. Oh, and the fact that for years he was president of the Malta Labour Party.

For some background on the new governor of the Central Bank, read here.