There is an unbearable likeness of Dom Mintoff to our prime minister that is very disturbing. No wonder the Nationalist Party appears to be in a quandary over his foreign policy. It’s all over the place, literally, but focused on one country – China.

Labour’s electoral programme, if that is anything to go by, speaks of Malta Maltija, Ewropea, Mediterranja. Very Mintoffian, except that when Joseph Muscat’s predecessor referred to Europe, he was referring to the east.

But Muscat’s first foreign foray was continents away in China to announce the sale of parts of Enemalta for which he has no mandate. Strange how things sometimes work out, don’t they? As our Malta Maltija government was lashing out and demonising the European Union over irregular migration, out comes China with a fat chequebook to buy a bankrupt Enemalta. How nice of them.

The astute Alternattiva leader, Arnold Cassola, was first to point out that through the deal the Chinese government will be getting a commercial foothold in Europe to circumvent tariffs levied by the EU on cheap photovoltaic panels. So our prime minister, with his unending sabre-rattling over migration, is preparing to flood the very EU countries he is demanding help from with Chinese panels they want to keep out.

Solidarity works one way for Muscat’s Malta Maltija.

The Government denies that Enemalta was a prearranged deal. Speaking to party faithful in Paola, who were probably wondering what had happened to their Labour Party, Muscat had this to say on Malta’s unfolding foreign policy:

“One of the earliest strategic decisions taken by the Government was to consider the EU as an extension of Malta. And since the EU is in economic crisis and growth is elsewhere, the Government is seeking out the countries whose economies are growing or had the short-term potential for growth.”

So Malta’s “extension” on the continent is just not good enough for Muscat because our economy is doing far too well to get bogged down by those sluggish Europeans who practically finance anything that happens on the island. That Malta is an integral part of the EU he demeans is conveniently forgotten.

This was not the first time that our prime minister was condescending towards the EU. Not so long ago, at the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry he urged it to “change its approach and open up its economy to become a global leader”. A bit rich coming from someone who campaigned against EU membership because his party wanted to keep protectionism.

After complaining that people from the Gulf or Saudi Arabia still needed to obtain a visa to travel to the EU (one wonders how that came in, maybe his energy minister would know), Muscat went on to urge the EU to “dismantle its trade barriers and become more in touch with today’s economic realities”.

But that is exactly what the EU is doing. There are talks under way between the Commission and the US aimed to achieve the biggest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated – and it could add around 0.5 per cent to the EU’s annual economic output.

While the EU and US have the largest bilateral trade relationship and enjoy the most integrated economic relationship in the world, our prime minister tells the EU to look to China and Africa instead of its natural partner, the US. Presumably, he finds the US recession there a bit of a turn-off too and prefers to opt for undemocratic countries, which Labour always found as good bedfellows.

We are in for a roller coaster ride in our relations with the EU

The finance minister’s recent speech at the Malta-China Chamber of Commerce made scary reading. Firstly, he said he will be working to boost the renminbi as an international currency (as against the US dollar and the euro, which he did not say). Then he goes on to compare the EU with China saying: “China is a young dynamic economy reflecting its youth, while Europe is a graceful though more mature economy, sometimes exhibiting some sclerosis as well.”

So this sclerosis, recession-ridden extension of Malta up north does not compare with the likes of China which, our finance professor says, has been kind enough to invest €4.5 million (hey, why not in renminbi?) in Santa Luċija’s Garden of Serenity.

Such bellicosity and cocksureness makes you wonder what other Enemalta-style deals Labour has up its sleeve – certainly nothing to feel serene about.

As our government continues with its EU-bashing tirade, with not-so-veiled threats and even sarcastic comments by our prime minister at the start of last weekend’s EU Council meeting, it begins to emerge that we are in for a roller coaster ride in our relations with the EU. How this will pan out as Malta’s upcoming presidency of the EU approaches still remains to be seen.

The shameless sale of EU passports against no investment at all in the country, dubbed as “avant-garde” by our prime minister but actually frowned upon as a cheap way for debt-ridden countries to raise money, is another step away from the EU, turning us into a rogue, buccaneer State in the Mediterranean. Muscat justified this by pointing to Austria, omitting the fact that passport issues there have been reduced to a trickle not least because, as one German newspaper put it, “of the onslaught of dubious Russians”.

Germany, which holds the purse of Europe, and which has a Russian mafia problem especially in Berlin, will not be amused if one of these dubious Russians turns up in its capital city brandishing a Maltese passport. There is a limit to how much Muscat, with €1.12 billion of EU funds in his back pocket left over by the Nationalist Administration, can push his luck with Europe before he gets his wings clipped and the rest of us with him.

There is a sinking feeling that more surprises in our foreign policy are likely to emerge, reminiscent of the Mintoff years. Labour’s electoral programme mentions specifically Russia, Turkey, the Gulf States, the Middle East, Brazil, India and Australia. It mentions China too, of course, but never in close proximity to Enemalta.

Muscat defends the Chinese deal by saying that Britain is doing very much the same. Well, yes, except that Britain has enormously more clout on the international scene than Malta and is not giving up control over its only power company to another country. Nor is it beginning to behave like it is China’s mouthpiece in Europe.

For all his brashness, that terrible echo of Mintoff, Muscat may soon find out that, within the wider scheme of things, outside the narrow confines of Burmarrad, Malta “can make its voice heard” but is, in reality, no more important than a chopstick in the Chinese takeaway he now appears to be running.

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