Throughout the Labour Party’s history, the Deputy-Leaders elected by the delegates have consistently been contrarians to the leader. Traditionally, Labour Party delegates have sought to vote for a Deputy-Leader that could serve as a cotnrarian and mediating layer to the power of the leader.
Joe Brincat, who died recently, was one example of this history. He was elected as Labour Party Deputy-Party Leader in 1977 against Dom Mintoff’s wishes. You had George Abela under Alfred Sant, Wenzu Mintoff and Toni Abela under Joseph Muscat, and as of lately Chris Fearne.
Will this tradition continue? Most probably. Not because of Jason Micallef, however. Most probably Robert Abela won’t have his own contender for the Deputy-Leadership race unless Silvio Schembri decides to contest, who surely and squarely, has by far much better chance of getting chosen than Jason Micallef. If Silvio Schembri contests and gets elected, the tradition would be broken.
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