Opinion: An opportunist or just daft?

Labour’s new MEP, Daniel Attard, went to Joseph Muscat, being prosecuted for money laundering, corruption and criminal association and told him: “If you swear to me that you did nothing wrong I’ll defend you with all my strength”.

Addressing a meeting for Attard, Muscat told the crowd that turned to him and swore, on his two daughters, that he’d done nothing wrong. And Daniel Attard believed him.

We know as much because Muscat recounted the story at one of Attard’s campaign events. Now Attard is our MEP.

The man shows abysmal judgment, pathetic naivety and a shocking lack of critical thought.

Instead of looking at the evidence, weighing the facts, analysing Muscat’s pattern of behaviour and challenging him to explain his catalogue of suspiciously rotten decisions, Attard simply took the word of a man caught lying repeatedly. And decided to embark on a crusade to defend him. Why?

Attard’s preposterous announcements in defence of Muscat may well be part of his cynical political calculation. Attard knew Muscat still commanded the support of tens of thousands.  He wagered that positioning himself as Muscat’s shield, as Michelle Muscat called him, would win Muscat’s faction over.

Or else the man is just daft as a brush.

Whether it’s pure egocentric opportunism or sheer stupidity that led Attard to seek Muscat’s endorsement, the depressing fact is that he now sits at the European Parliament waiting to add to the embarrassment his mentor inflicted on his country.

“I want to defend you,” Attard told Muscat. “If you swear to me today that you did nothing wrong, I am behind you”.

Attard didn’t bother to ask Muscat how, just weeks after stepping down, tens of thousands of euro found themselves in his BOV account from Swiss company Accutor AG.  He didn’t ask Muscat why Steward paid millions meant to go to our hospitals to Accutor AG instead, which transferred thousands to Muscat.

Attard wasn’t baffled by the fact that Accutor AG also paid Konrad Mizzi, Ram Tumuluri, Shaukat Ali and his entire family.

Attard didn’t bother to ask Muscat why he refused to give the police the password to his phones and tablet if he was so keen on revealing the truth.  He didn’t question why Muscat chose Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH), a company he knew from his own due diligence had neither health experience nor the money to invest.  Or why he concealed that secret Memorandum of Understanding for years until his successor ordered the “missing” document to be found.

He didn’t ask Muscat why he kept moving the goalposts when VGH failed to meet every milestone or why he allowed them to run up millions in unpaid NI and tax.

Attard didn’t wonder why Muscat kept defending Steward or why he set up a secret €100 million termination clause in Steward’s favour.  Or why the first thing he did when he resigned was lobby his successor to give Steward an even better deal.

Did he question Muscat on how he could possibly afford his lavish lifestyle – his Maserati, his wife’s collection of designer bags, his worldwide travels, his children’s education, the Billionaire dinner club – when he only claimed to have €75,000 in savings?

Did Attard not feel somewhat suspicious that the former prime minister amassed over half a million euro in consultancies within months of resigning? Did he ask Muscat what experience he had with exotic birds?

Attard wasn’t bothered about Muscat’s failure to force Konrad Mizzi to provide the NAO with the information requested.  He wasn’t concerned about Muscat’s private chat group with Keith Schembri and Yorgen Fenech, inviting the latter to his private birthday party and accepting his lavish gifts.

He didn’t ask Muscat why he pretended to forget when he saw Yorgen Fenech last but immediately remembered why he still invited him despite knowing he was a suspect in Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Attard has been busy echoing his master’s voice.  “I don’t trust how the magisterial inquiry was conducted in this case,” he declared.  But he has trust in Muscat.

The 32-year-old never worked as a lawyer but pompously announced, “We will see that Joseph Muscat and all those unfairly accused will get justice, and I will be there as a lawyer to see that justice is done.”

Attard was a ONE reporter before pursuing legal studies, graduating in 2017.  He never practised as a lawyer because Labour swiftly put him onto the gravy train.

He worked in Minister Helena Dalli’s secretariat. He then became Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo’s spokesperson while also serving as Mtarfa’s mayor, a most convenient arrangement for Bartolo, whose electoral district included Mtarfa.

Before he graduated, Attard was sent to Geneva to serve at Malta’s diplomatic mission to the UN.  In 2021, he was appointed Deputy High Commissioner in London despite his extremely limited diplomatic experience.  Yet he also retained his position as mayor of Mtarfa, leading the local council online from London.

His wife Annalise, a pharmacist and director at the Malta Medicines Authority, was given special permission to retain her post and work from London, where she joined her husband.

We now have a 32-year-old representing us in Europe who’s never had a proper job, who can’t recognise a lie if it hits him in the face, and who claims to have “vast political experience both at a local and European level”.

Even worse, he’s a dangerous loose cannon.  “The time of being passive and letting everything go is over. Justice isn’t a tool in the hands of those interested only in political persecution…. Persecution doesn’t scare me. I’ll stand up to it with all my strength as I’ve done with my actions in court,” he declared on Labour TV.

“The hatred I saw tonight against Joseph Muscat after the death of his father strengthens in me the will to work more than ever so that whoever is cruel will never return to Castille,” Attard said.

When criticised for his inappropriate remarks, he rebutted: “I’ve never been one to hold back”.  At least he has some insight, he knows he’s an indisciplined, impulsive, irresponsible windbag. But those are hardly the qualities required of an MEP.