US cables from 1974 published by Wikileaks report how then Opposition leader George Borg Olivier described Prime Minister Dom Mintoff as a miser.

“He’s a miser at home and he runs the country just like he runs his home,” Borg Olivier told then US Ambassador John Getz on February 1, 1974 during a lunch.

At the same occasion – two years before his second election defeat in 1976, Borg Olivier seemed confident his party could win if an election were held soon, despite the fact that MP Alfred Baldacchino had defected to Labour.

“We lost an MP but we didn’t lose any votes,” Dr Borg Olivier had said.

The Nationalists seemed sure that Lorry Sant would be Mr Mintoff’s choice for successor but Dr Borg Olivier pointed out that Mr Sant “seems worried” and was “beginning to have a drinking problem”.

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