Another critical test challenging Prime Minister Robert Abela’s hold on the Labour Party is emerging through the latest contest surrounding the party’s presidency.

While historically, the role does not carry the weight of its nomenclature, occupied by the likes of Manuel Cuschieri and Ramona Attard during the past few years, the ‘battle’ for Labour’s delegates is considered by party insiders as another test for Abela’s popularity and hold over its rank and file.

According to PL sources, Alex Sciberras, a Labour militant who stopped his activism when disgraced former leader Joseph Muscat was forced to resign, is a proxy for Muscat’s faction.

On the other hand, Norma Saliba, until a few months ago the Head of PBS News, is Prime Minister Robert Abela’s choice.

Norma Saliba and Alex Sciberras.

Insiders said that while Abela wanted and found a candidate to deflate Sciberras’s challenge, it is very unclear who the winner will be. While Sciberras is considered “superior quality” to Saliba, the latter has the leader’s full backing and endorsement.

Both on the gravy train since 2013

The son of the late Judge Philip Sciberras, himself a former MP in the Mintoff era, Alex Sciberras started his activism at a young age, inside Labour’s youth movement and later as an elected Labour mayor of Msida.

Once Labour swept to power in 2013, Sciberras made the most out of his relationship with the then-newly elected prime minister, raking in tens of thousands from many jobs handed to him by the Muscat administration.

Considered one of Muscat’s kitchen cabinet members, Alex was closest to the disgraced former Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and former minister Konrad Mizzi.

Alex Sciberras was singled out by the NAO for his go-between role in the controversial multi-million sale of the former ITS land in St Julian’s, playing a role which, according to the investigation, lacked transparency and accountability.

His proximity to Muscat, Schembri and Mizzi catapulted him into many well-remunerated roles.

Among the directorships handed to him were those on the boards of Air Malta, Enemed, Petromal, Malta Aviation Services Ltd., and One Productions—the company responsible for Labour’s TV station.

He was also a full-time advisor to Muscat, with an office at Castille. Projects Malta, the government agency involved in all the shady deals conducted by the Muscat administration, gave him other paid briefs.

Following Muscat’s political demise, Sciberras put his weight behind Chris Fearne, which led to his eventual sidelining by Robert Abela.

Still, apart from starting a new role as a senior partner at LRS, a firm specialising in selling Maltese citizenship and residency, he was kept on the gravy train through consultancy roles at the Health, Agriculture and EU Funds Ministries.

Norma Saliba is Abela’s candidate in the upcoming contest and is considered a much lighter weight than Sciberras.

The daughter of another veteran Labour stalwart, Mario Saliba, a Labour councillor and long-time sports journalist, Saliba has always maintained close connections within the Party, even when she was Head of News of the supposedly impartial public broadcasting.

Her former marriage to Manuel Micallef, a GWU man and, at the time, Labour TV’s Head of News, pushed her into closer proximity with Labour insiders. She then propelled herself to Head of News at the state broadcaster on Robert Abela’s direct instructions.

However, after falling out with PBS Chairman Mark Sammut, Abela dropped her as her open war with the state broadcaster’s chairman became public.

A position was then created for by Culture Minister Owen Bonnici making her Head of the National Centre for the Maltese Language, an agency that was created to give her the role.

As compensation for her ousting from her senior PBS position, Saliba was given a financial package of €73,000.

At the same time, Saliba was kept on the books of the state broadcaster as a fallback position.