Joseph Muscat claimed on Thursday that active members within the Labour Party had tried to sideline him.

“There were individuals – not within the leadership – who tried to sideline me. I learnt who are my real friends, but people still loved me. It hurt, but it hurt my family more than anyone else,” he told Karl Bonaci during an interview on F Living. 

The former prime minister was fielding questions from the TV station owner about his prospective return to politics.

He later clarified with Times of Malta that the people who tried to sideline him were still active within the PL, but refused to identify them.

Muscat said these same people were still harming the party: “Whoever doesn’t strive for unity is harming the party".

It was his first wide-ranging discussion after Labour pundit Manuel Cuschieri urged supporters to call for Muscat's return into politics and stand for the European elections in June. 

He told Bonaci he was still mulling the idea while taking into consideration what would “truly” benefit the party, the electorate's support, his professional life and family circumstances.

Over recent years he had built his own office and several professional relationships: “I cannot tell the people with whom I built such a relationship, that I’m suddenly returning to politics”.

In the meantime, Muscat said, his two daughters were considering furthering their studies abroad, while his father was battling cancer. As an only child, he also needed to care for his aging parents.

“It is a very difficult decision… I need to think of the good and bad repercussions on the party and also my family,” he told Bonaci.

'I need to take care of my family'

When Bonaci pressed him further, asking: “more yes than no?” Muscat replied: “I need to take care of my family”.

“Together with my family, I lived through the trauma when the police turned up at our house. We face it with a brave face as we are not weak. Others would have probably fallen into depression. I don’t want my family to pay a higher price than it has already paid because of me.”

Muscat resigned in January 2020 in the wake of the fallout from the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigation, but recently shot back into the national news agenda after he said he was not ruling out standing on the PL ticket for the European Parliament elections in June. 

On Thursday, he told Bonaci that media organisations and political opponents often mentioned him because his name “sells”. 

He also claimed he did not access Facebook and that it was his assistant who takes care of the content on his social media profile.

'They want me to waste two years of my life'

Muscat referred to his attempt at having the magistrate leading an inquiry into the hospitals' privatisation deal removed from the case.

He claimed some wanted to tarnish his reputation and waste two years of his life as he went back and forth to court. The magistrate's inquiry into the deal to privatise three state hospitals was triggered by a request made by rule of law NGO Repubblika.

Police officers raided Muscat's Burmarrad home and seized documents in January 2022 because of the probe.

Last year, Muscat publicly declared that he wanted the inquiry reassigned to a different magistrate and kicked off legal efforts to force that to happen, because her family members posted comments on social media.

Muscat said he still believed that the private sector should be involved in the health sector.

He claimed an attempt at privatising the sector failed because of “vested interests” within the health sector that wanted to retain the status quo.

“Someone betrayed someone. It is either a situation where whoever was meant to implement changes didn’t implement them or was not allowed to from someone within the health system.”