Malta’s most famous Freemason, Konrad Mizzi’s lawyer, previous judge, and now also part-time developer, Carol Peralta is also enthusiastically supporting Alex Borg. Carol Peralta, like Adrian Delia’s canvassers, has gone from supporting him to now backing Alex Borg. Previously, Peralta used to introduce Delia to various contacts and acquaintances during the time when Delia was the Leader of the Opposition, in visits to his home in Mdina. Now, Peralta is helping Alex Borg in similar ways.
The alliance between Adrian Delia and Alex Borg is very convenient and mutually beneficial to both of them. Adrian Delia was ousted from Party Leader by an internal revolt that saw him lose the support of his parliamentary group. Apart from having his personal life in shambles, beating his wife, looting the Party, engaging in conspiracies, and being accused of money laundering, Adrian Delia failed to revive PN’s numbers. Today, Adrian Delia has rehabilitated his political career by leading a case in court against the government and Joseph Muscat for public hospitals fraud. The case was prepared by a team of lawyers when Adrian Delia was still leader, including Jason Azzopardi, who was part of the rebellion to oust Adrian Delia as leader.
Adrian Delia was allowed to rehabilitate himself into politics by the new Party Leader Bernard Grech. Grech reasoned that he needed to keep peace in the Party by maintaining unity with both factions. This sounds reasonable for a beleaguered Opposition under an increasingly illiberal state and criminal government. However, Grech failed to provide the necessary leadership and vision to motivate the different factions under a common set of principles and beliefs, leaving the Party’s supporters at the mercy of the actions of their parliamentary representatives. The result today is that PN has been misguided by the individual-political interests of its MPs, rendering the Opposition ineffective.
Labour has successfully crawled back out of the 2019 crisis by preserving the rent-seeking regime and continuing the rule of law crisis whereby organized crime and its corrupt politicians are provided with impunity. Labour wants to give the impression that the struggle for the rule of law has been lost by PN and that those who still fight for it are a small number of PN rebels who do not hold any sway electorally. Now, Labour’s narrative on the rule of law has become realpolitik, whereby participating in politics successfully, requires you to participate in this rent-seeking regime. This is why, Adrian Delia, Alex Borg and Franco Debono are seemingly more popular and project themselves as the “pragmatists” who could win PN the general elections. That’s a very self-defeating road to take and after all, it’s an imitation of Labour’s politics.
Being in the Opposition is not an easy task, but Alex Borg has chosen the path of least resistance. Adrian Delia has found a new champion in him. Lacking visionaries and new political stalwarts, Alex Borg who is a popular figure in Gozo fills a void in PN very easily. This comes out of desperation: that today, PN is so low, that basically anyone associated with it can become popular by default, and this is why Franco Debono now wants back in. Meanwhile, Alex Borg has successfully positioned himself as an emerging PN star, also thanks to Adrian Delia who has lent him his team to boost his support in Malta where Alex Borg is relatively, less popular. Alex Borg doesn’t have a political network in Malta, so Adrian Delia can provide this to him, while Alex Borg supports Adrian Delia’s position in the Party as a rehabilitated and growing politician. In this mutually beneficial relationship, Adrian Delia also gets Gozo.
I find Carol Peralta’s involvement in all of this very interesting. Carol Peralta is Konrad Mizzi’s lawyer serving not just Konrad Mizzi, but a host of other connections and friends who all have one thing in common: not to stir the waters. A sort of supervisor for the rent-seeking regime that ensures no one disrupts anything with a criminal case that may implicate a host of people in politics, mostly from the Labour government, that would harm a lot of separate individual interests. If Carol Peralta is ensuring that people like Konrad Mizzi enjoy immunity for his sake and others, Carol Peralta’s interests will be carried by the political faction that he would be supporting in PN – it is only in his interest to ensure this happens.
All of this could be avoided if PN had a very clear vision of what it intends to do. Previously, PN had even presented a host of laws that would have fought organised crime and political corruption. Now, PN has fallen to the extent that it can’t figure out how it will respond to an imminent government-proposed bill that would give prosecutors and the police less power in asset seizure. Its MPs seem to be doing what is best for their interest instead of working in an overall Party framework, and many of them are mostly inactive compared to what Opposition MPs are expected to do. This is a complacency that is ultimately helping the government and the Labour Party. Alex Borg would prefer to blame the messengers who are pointing this out. So, indeed, the situation is truly desperate.
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