Former General Workers Union boss Tony Zarb calls for removal of PANA Committee chairman; says Werner Langen “enjoys rubbing up against David Casa’s backside and front and Roberta Metsola’s front”

Former General Workers Union boss Tony Zarb, a committed supporter of the Malta Labour Party who led mass street demonstrations on the slightest pretext whenever the Nationalists were in government, has called for the removal of Werner Langen, who chairs the European Parliament’s anti-money-laundering (PANA) committee. He has done so in defence of Labour leader and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

In his badly spelled appeal in Maltese on Facebook, which he has addressed to “My fellow defenders of Malta”, Mr Zarb described the European Parliament anti-money-laundering committee chairman as “an individual who knows how to rub up against David Casa’s back/rear and Roberta Metsola’s front, and who enjoys it”.

Dr Casa and Dr Metsola are Nationalist MEPs, and the former union boss misspells the latter’s name as ‘Mezzola’ despite the fact that she has been in public life and in the newspapers for several years.

Dr Langen, who spoke during the parliament’s plenary debate on the rule of law in Malta yesterday afternoon, was extremely angry at what he described as Joseph Muscat’s constant defiance in the face of requests that he and his chief of staff appear before the committee. “Your behaviour is completely unacceptable,” Dr Langen said. “And you will not get away scot free.”

When Dr Muscat began to speak, claiming that he has taken action on the issues raised by the Panama Papers, Dr Langen could be heard angrily accusing him of lying and trying to correct him, while Dr Muscat spoke loudly into the microphone to drown him out, saying a trifle childishly, “Don’t interrupt me because I didn’t interrupt you.”

At that point, Dr Langen stood up and left the chamber, stopping to say to another MEP on the way out: “He’s a liar.”

A translation follows of Tony Zarb’s Facebook post, in which he makes homophobic insults in defence of the superficially ‘liberal and progressive’ Labour leader, and equates Joseph Muscat to ‘Malta’.

“My fellow defenders of Malta,

“I am appealing to the Maltese government to register its protest with European institutions against the behaviour of the PANA Committee chairman, Werner Langen. Given what he said, he cannot continue to be accepted as the committee chairman and his resignation must be demanded.

“Werner Langen has already decided and reached his conclusions, and he has shown that he has hdura kbira (no equivalent term or concept in English, though the nearest equivalent might be ‘intense spite and resentment’) towards Prime Minister Joseph Muscat when he said that the Prime Minister is not going to get off scot free and this means that he cannot be just in his decisions.

“If it were up to me, no official of the Maltese government should appear before the PANA Committee as long as Werner Langen remains its chairman. It would be good to remind people that Werner Langen is an individual who knows how to rub up against the Nationalist Party and Nationalist MEPs in the European Parliament, and he knows how to and enjoys rubbing up against David Casa’s backside and even his front and Roberta Mezzola’s (sic) front, too.

“I think Werner Lungin (sic) should be declared persuna mon grata (sic) to the people of Malta. Beware, Maltese people – let us not let anyone run our country down. I will never forgive anyone, whether he is Maltese or not, who causes harm to Malta.

“I ask you to click Like on this post, share it with people you know, and comment on it. Here below you will see Werner Langen rubbing up against David Casa.”