ABBA leader Ivan Grech Mintoff hurled an egg on stage and stormed out of a university debate at the end of his first intervention on Thursday in protest over speaking time. 

He was among MEP candidates who went head-to-head on Thursday in a debate held by the Kunsill Studenti Universitarji (KSU).

Two candidates were representing the Labour and Nationalist parties at the debate, with the others being independent candidates, ADPD and ABBA. 

Questioned about his position on European defence, Grech Mintoff said Malta’s role in Partnership for Peace was a “betrayal” of Malta’s neutrality, but throughout his intervention, he complained that small parties and independent candidates are not being treated fairly by the debate organisers. 

He said small parties and independent candidates were initially given far less time in the debate, and it is only because of their insistence that the debate format changed for each participant to have five minutes each. 

Still, the imbalance of more members from the PL and PN was unfair, he said, before proceeding to walk to centre stage and smashing an egg on the ground, to giggles from the crowd and debaters. 

He made his way out of the side door of Sir Temi Zammit Hall, claiming that the KSU was "PL and PN".

His reaction elicited an immediate comment from independent candidate and comedian James Ryder Muscat who said: “If I am elected I will not let Grech Mintoff anywhere near a chicken.” 

It is the second time that Grech Mintoff resorted to hurling eggs as a sign of protest. During a Freedom Day ceremony in March, he threw eggs at the foot of Prime Minister Robert Abela in protest over issues of neutrality.