I found my freedom ... on parliament hill

Alfred Sant: speaking his mind?

In July I already had a hunch that something was up. In his typically cloak and dagger manner, Alfred Sant started riding the Eurozone crisis debate to get to his intellectual comfort zone: Malta should never have become an EU member. In July I argued that Joseph Muscat was right, not his predecessor.

Alfred Sant has been holding an anti-membership view since the late 1960s. Since he became leader in 1992 he continued to slave his party to it until he lost the 1998 election, the EU referendum and the 2003 election. After that he feigned acceptance of 'the people's will' until he crashed his party into a wall again in 2008.

But now Alfred Sant is a backbencher and has the freedom to be his political self once again. And bang on cue he is at it again. This week in parliament he stalled the ratification of the EU's bail out of Greece.

For today I will not go further than to note Alfred Sant's unwavering anti-EU view which he's held for half a century. But there might be more to this than meets the eye. I still have to see whether it manifests another ugly streak amongst PL leaders.

Mintoff never accepted anyone else running the party he created. Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici was his puppet and when Alfred Sant refused to be one Mintoff torpedoed his government. Could it be that Alfred Sant is now turning into his nemesis?