Joseph Muscat is clearly out against the old socialist youth guard and probably what has been the last socialist youth group in the Labour Party. These were the young socialists who lived most of their youth in Opposition before Labour won the government in 2013.
The Labour Party’s youth wing has traditionally been its most radical arm, however this tradition was broken when Joseph Muscat became Prime Minister as the incoming youth got accustomed to easy government jobs instead of cutting their teeth in street politics. Some of the previous generations of the Labour youth arm have also been part of the old socialist Labour Party tradition, like Ryan Spagnol. They have been very influential in the Party over the years out of their sheer regular presence and activist work.
In 2019, some of these young socialists, who also had prominent positions in the Party, united together to cut off Joseph Muscat from the infrastructure of the Party. At the height of the crisis in December 2019, Joseph Muscat wanted to pull the reins and the organs of the Party in his support hoping that he could stay in power. In doing so, Joseph Muscat announced a mass meeting in Fgura where he planned to make a show of public support. Joseph Muscat believed that this show of force could save his leadership and premiership.
When this meeting was announced, a group of young Labour Party socialists from the old socialist tradition ganged up and blocked Joseph Muscat from his access to the Party’s media, funds, and propaganda apparatus. These young socialist activists mainly were Randolph Debattista, Ryan Spagnol and Daniel Micallef. Still backing Joseph Muscat from the same generation of Labourites was Nigel Vella. The others were continually undermining Joseph Muscat to prevent him from making use of the Labour Party’s infrastructure.
Today, Joseph Muscat wants their heads because he knows that they still block many of his potential access points to the Labour Party. Without them in the way, Joseph Muscat would have greater influence and access to the Labour Party.
The story about the Fgura mass meeting was told in more concise terms in A Rent-Seeking Paradise, but there is more to say about these individuals, and others like them in the Party, which I am doing in my next book.
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