Muscat cut a deal with Cardona to accommodate Mallia

Using the path cleared for him by default by Muscat’s changing of the rules to accommodate his henchman Konrad Mizzi, Chris Cardona is the first to throw his hat in the ring to replace the corrupt non-contender.

It can’t be more obvious now why Muscat asked Mizzi to give up the deputy leadership but kept him on in the cabinet (should I be worried that I can read their behaviour?): they struck a deal. Cardona consented to let go of part of his portfolio – the part that Jose Herrera looked after as his parliamentary secretary for ‘competitiveness’, which includes remote gaming and casinos – in return for Muscat making him party deputy leader. This has allowed Muscat to give Manuel Mallia what he wanted: the ministry responsible for online and land-based gaming, which has untold possibilities for a sleazebag who is ultra-familiar with the criminal underworld and who thinks nothing of saying that he keeps half a million in cash at home.