Looks like Twanny Bronka is for the chop

The prime minister with Franco Mercieca

I did say some weeks ago that Muscat’s decision to go after ‘ir-ragel ta’ Giovanna Debono’ only now, when he should have done so as soon as he got the information a couple of years ago, is his way of damaging his own minister Anton Refalo, with the bonus of collateral damage to the Nationalist Party.

And that he is doing this because he wants to clear the way for his mate Franco Mercieca to become Gozo Minister.

Now we are told that ministers will (might?) be able to keep their private practice “if it is in the national interest”. Mercieca is an eye surgeon, one of few operating in Malta.

He was parliamentary secretary for a while, but then he was found to have been operating in private clinics in breach of the rules.

And yet again we have a situation where public positions are treated as being in the gift of the prime minister, who tailor-makes them to suit the crony to be favoured, rather than picking somebody who is right for the job.

The fact that Mercieca is an eye surgeon makes him unfit for purpose. You cannot be an eye surgeon and a cabinet minister at the same time. Each of those requires your full attention and energy. If he is doing both, we know which one will suffer: his job as minister.