Why has Chris Cardona’s hastily-assembled lease agreement been backdated to 1 December?

Silvan Fenech, the Minister for the Economy’s Portomaso landlord and drinking companion at the Stable in Valletta

Chris Cardona, Minister for the Economy, with European Commissioner Karmenu Vella aka Il-Guy

I am informed that the Minister for the Economy was asked to leave the marital home in May. That was when his (second) wife was seen depositing bags, presumably containing his belongings, on the doorstep of their home and he was seen taking them away.

Before that, he was clearly living at the marital home in Madliena because he was seen departing and returning routinely.

It’s good to have this confirmation but I knew it had to be a lot more recent than 1st December because the news has only just begun doing the rounds in the last three weeks or so.

If Mrs Cardona II had thrown him out last November or December, the news would have got out around Christmas or the New Year, not now.

Again, none of this would have been relevant or any of our business were it not for the fact that the lease agreement, which the Minister of the Economy hastily assembled and published last night, stipulates that the lease began on 1 December last year.

This is obviously fraudulent because until May this year, the Minister for the Economy was still living at the marital home in Madliena.

Without suggesting anything untoward – that the Minister for the Economy was borrowing his businessman friend Silvan Fenech’s Portomaso flat for use as a shag-pad, not an unusual practice for politicians anywhere, and generally one which eventually brings them down – there must be a reason why they hit on that 1 December 2014 date. It can’t possibly be just random.