The Equality Ministry’s chief of staff has decided “to move on” and is now adviser to the Justice Minister.

“I am no longer chief of staff and decided to move on,” Ronnie Pellegrini said when contacted, denying reports that he had been sacked following a rift with Equality and European Affairs Minister Helena Dalli and a family member.

“You can write whatever you want but I did not clash with the minister. I just decided to move on,” he insisted.

European Affairs Ministry sources told the Times of Malta the minister had had enough of Mr Pellegrini and decided to let him go.

“It has long been coming but the situation reached boiling point after Minister Dalli’s bad showing during the Labour Party’s deputy leader election. The minister took the result very badly and asked Mr Pellegrini to vacate his post of chief of staff,” the sources said.

The minister took the result very badly

Dr Dalli contested the post vacated by former deputy prime minister Louis Grech together with Finance Minister Edward Scicluna and Health Minister Chris Fearne.

However, despite getting the unofficial endorsement of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat himself, Dr Dalli fared badly and was the first candidate to be eliminated in the contest.

According to the sources, Mr Pellegrini was accused by members of Dr Dalli’s secretariat as not giving his full support to her bid.

Mr Pellegrini, a former chief canvasser of the late Labour public works minister, Lorry Sant, left a few weeks ago and was then given a contract as an adviser to Justice Minister Owen Bonnici. The move was interpreted as hitting back at Dr Dalli.

“Owen Bonnici contests the same district as Dr Dalli – the third. It is obvious that Dr Bonnici’s intention in recruiting Mr Pellegrini is to embarrass Dr Dalli among her constituents in the same district and lure voters,” a Labour delegate said.

It is not yet known in which area is Mr Pellegrini advising the Justice Minister.

A spokeswoman for Dr Dalli would not say why Mr Pellegrini was not retained as chief of staff. However, she said that “Mr Pellegrini was last engaged with Minister Dalli as adviser on industrial relations and he has since moved to the Ministry of Justice.”

The post of chief of staff is still vacant although a provisional appointment was made.

ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com