Education Minister Clifton Grima’s canvasser: a sports official suspended over a death threat

Clifton Grima, who has just been appointed minister of education after Justyne Caruana’s resignation on 22 December, is known to count Rainer Scerri among his team of canvassers – a well-known Labour activist who was suspended from his role as an official for a waterpolo club for ten matches and fined €900 following a death threat made against an Aquatic Sports Association official.

The information was confirmed through an analysis of promotional material for a coffee morning organised by Grima’s team: footage uploaded from Scerri’s own Facebook page on 22 November clearly shows Scerri in the background of the proceedings.

Scerri’s presence as one of Grima’s main canvassers has raised eyebrows due to Scerri’s conduct in his capacity as an official for Neptunes waterpolo club, a news item related to which was directly censored through the office of the prime minister. A TVM report about Scerri’s suspension in September was taken down shortly after it was uploaded.

Besides having threatened an Aquatic Sports Association official named Carlo Mifsud, formerly known as the CEO of the Lands Authority, Scerri is also known to have been charged in court for injuring a rival team’s doctor.

In November, The Shift published an article featuring Rainer’s brother, Clint, posing for a picture with a Maserati Ghibli, a vehicle which costs anywhere between €22,000 for a well-used second hand model and €100,000 when bought straight out of the showroom.

Clint Scerri, who was once declared ‘the King of Lands’, was a public official embroiled in the 2015 Old Mint street expropriation scandal involving Mark Gaffarena. Scerri was outed as a key intermediary between the government and Gaffarena, with the two often being seen at the government’s property division together.

The scandal had led to the resignation of then-Parliamentary Secretary for Lands Michael Falzon, who currently occupies the position of family and social solidary minister.