Former Labour leader Joseph Muscat denied claims by Labour pundit Emanuel Cuschieri that he has accepted to contest the European Parliament elections, saying when contacted that "nothing has changed".
On Tuesday evening, Cuschieri wrote on his Facebook page that “Joseph Muscat said yes”.
He was basing the statement on comments Cuschieri said Muscat’s wife Michelle made during a political activity of MEP candidate Claudette Abela Baldacchino.
Cuschieri claimed Michelle Muscat said that Joseph and herself continued to love and will continue to love the Labour Party and will always be there for the party if called.
"I am being asked what is Joseph doing. Joseph, as always, will continue to work for the benefit of the Labour Party and the country. This decision is now the party's and its' leaders," Cuschieri quoted Michelle Muscat as saying.
Speculation that the former PM could contest the European Parliament elections started by Cuschieri in January when he suggested that Muscat could run for a seat.
Muscat has been coy about his plans, repeatedly saying that he has not decided.
Prime Minister Robert Abela left the door open for Muscat's return. Muscat resigned in 2020 in the wake of the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder revelations and has been dogged with claims of corruption since.
“Joseph Muscat must take his own decision about whether he should be a candidate for the Labour Party or not,” Abela said in an interview on Saturday with Andrew Azzopardi on RTK 103.
“But if his answer is yes, why should I say no to him?” he said.
An internal PL poll shows that that the governing party would get a significant boost should Muscat run in the EP elections.
Should he run, the PL would win June’s European elections by more than 40,000 votes over the Nationalists as at least 20,000 Labour voters who claim to be abstaining or mulling whether to vote, would go to the polls if the former prime minister was on the ballot sheet.
Without Muscat on the sheet, the party would still win the elections with a majority of around 27,000 votes, but his return would almost certainly secure a fourth MEP seat for the Labour Party.