Sant-Mintoff backbiting continues

The backbiting between Dom Mintoff and Labour leader Alfred Sant continued yesterday when Dr Sant said the histrionics that were the order of the day at public meetings 40 or so years ago from aboard trucks was over.

The barbed jibe was obviously aimed at Mr Mintoff's manner of addressing an open air meeting at Rabat last Friday. The Labour Party's former grandee, today aged 86, spoke from the box of an open truck behind a nondescript metal table along with his immediate successor as Labour leader, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.

The latter has turned heads in wonder after switching from Dr Sant to Mr Mintoff in his Front Maltin Inqumu, in spite of Mr Mintoff having publicly regretted passing on the Labour leadership to Dr Mifsud Bonnici.

Holding back from mentioning Mr Mintoff by name, Dr Sant took the swipe at his predecessor in a brief remark towards the end of his speech during a political conference at the Siggiewi Labour Party club.

There is no love lost between Mr Mintoff and Dr Sant in the wake of Mr Mintoff's parliamentary tactics in 1998, which brought down Dr Sant's short-lived Labour government.

Mr Mintoff, speaking on Friday to what must to him be a disappointingly small crowd - his newly-formed Front Maltin Inqumu has not so far taken off, and Mr Mintoff has been resoundingly rebuffed by the party faithful - repeatedly attacked the Labour Party leadership, calling it ineffective and in a daze, and toeing the line of the government in wanting to move towards closer relations with the EU.

He claimed the Labour Party had only taken a stronger stand against the EU after he (Mr Mintoff) had come out in the open with his front.

Mr Mintoff, perhaps unwittingly, showed his disappointment at the poor attendance of a few hundreds by telling his listeners that although support for any new movement was hard to garner, they should not lose heart because backing for the front would eventually increase.

Dr Sant yesterday ignored Mr Mintoff, apart from the histrionics jibe, and hit out at Union Haddiema Maghqudin general secretary Gejtu Vella who, he said, had lied last week when Mr Vella said that Dr Sant's Labour government had planned to lay off 10,000 workers.

Dr Sant said that what his government had in mind was to remove levies over a period of time to give industry breathing space to adjust to the new conditions of a free market, ensuring not only that workers did not lose their jobs but that new job opportunities would be created.

Dr Sant challenged Mr Vella to sue him for libel.

The Labour leader also took Health Minister Louis Deguara to task for having laid out a migration plan from St Luke's Hospital to the new Mater Dei Hospital at Tal-Qroqq without taking into account any feedback from the representatives of doctors and nurses.

Members of the media, as seems to be Labour policy lately, were asked to leave the political conference when it was time for Dr Sant to take questions from the floor.