Former Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer has joined the leadership of a recently formed activist NGO that has promised to set up a new political party by the next general election.

In an interview with Times of Malta, Wayne Flask and Matthew Borg – co-founders of Il-Kollettiv – confirmed Engerer had joined the NGO as its vice-secretary a few weeks ago but said it was too early to tell whether he, or anyone else, would contest on the new party’s ticket come next election.

“Our priority right now is to set up internal structures that would allow members to join. We’d rather strengthen our activism before we move on to discussing the political party. But we have a vision and we have a strategy to get there,” Flask said.

“It’s a pleasure to have a [former] MEP join us, because he chose us knowing we cannot pay, when he could have maybe taken up some lucrative job or posting elsewhere.”

Il-Kollettiv (which literally translates to ‘The Collective’) was unveiled last April as a new activist group that will help residents across Maltese localities organise themselves to fight excessive development, social injustices and inequality, among other issues.

Along with Borg and Flask is also Jeanette Borg, the NGO’s president and one of its co-founders.

Engerer had publicly expressed support for the group on the day it launched. At the time he was still an MEP and it was not yet clear whether he was going seek re-election, and he eventually did not.

‘No conflict of interest’

Times of Malta contacted Engerer, asking him whether he has resigned from the PL now that he holds a leadership role in an NGO that plans to create its own political party.

“Technically, I remain a member of Partit Laburista because my membership is paid,” he said, adding that he did resign from the party last year over the government’s stance on the Jean Paul Sofia public inquiry, after he was prevented from attending a parliamentary group meeting that discussed the issue.

“Since I was not allowed to join online (as I had done for all other meetings while being abroad on parliamentary duties), I decided to resign because I could not agree with an internal system that does not even allow for the airing of views – let alone be in a position to help change them.

“Although my resignation was not accepted and I continued to receive invitations to parliamentary group meetings and other events, I chose not to attend any of them – apart from the following one that had then discussed the terms of reference of the public inquiry.”

So, does he think he will have a conflict of interest now? Not really.

“Since Il-Kollettiv is an NGO, there is no conflict of interest since the principles and beliefs defined in Partit Laburista’s statute are in line with those of Il-Kollettiv,” he told Times of Malta.

“In the same way that my membership in MGRM [Malta Gay Rights Movement] was never in conflict with my membership in Partit Laburista.”

Asked to say whether he has plans to contest the next general election on the new party’s ticket, Engerer simply said “Il-Kollettiv is an NGO, not a political party”.

A party will emerge

In the interview earlier this week, Borg and Flask explained that Il-Kollettiv will not itself be turned into a party, as the NGO must continue the necessary activism in several localities.

Rather, the new party will emerge out of it and will be up and running and have candidates contesting on its ticket by the next general election.

Engerer hopes his knowledge and experience in policy, decision-making and campaigning in Malta and the EU could be an asset to the NGO.

‘Il-Kollettiv’ co-founders Matthew Borg (left) and Wayne Flask. Photo: Karl Andrew Micallef

Not a third party

Borg, the NGO’s treasurer, insisted it is unfair to dub it as another “third party”. Third parties have been doomed to live in the shadows of the big parties because referring to them as ‘third parties’ implies they are third best.

“It’s like there are two big parties and the rest are fighting it out at the bottom to see who gets to slide in between the two big ones,” he said.

“We’re not attempting to create a third party, but another party. Our aim is to build a strong relationship with the residents. We don’t just go to the locality and tell them they can object to some application. We help them spearhead their own fight themselves.”

If they are activists, then why didn’t they join the many other existent activist groups, like Moviment Graffiti?

Il-Kollettiv is different, they said, because unlike the others, it aims to produce and push forward political candidates to run for office.

“We wanted to go a step further, because you never see activists run for office,” Borg said.

Labelling them ‘third parties’ implies they’re third best

Borg and Flask are aware, however, that the smaller parties have so far failed to break the electoral glass ceiling time and time again. They are trying to crack it by proposing drastic electoral reform days after election results were published last month, and by staying as close to the people as possible – “unlike the many politicians who say they are close to the people but in fact are out of touch with voters’ realities”.

The 135,000 voters who did not vote for the big parties in the MEP election are a testament to that, they believe, and Il-Kollettiv is tapping into that potential.

A coalition with whom?

Even if their candidates were to be elected in the next general election, in the absence of a majority they would likely need to form a coalition with one of the big parties.

Asked which party they might feel comfortable with, Borg and Flask said that decision lay way into the future. They must first develop their electoral manifesto and see what the big parties would come up with in theirs.

For now, they are sticking to empowering residents to take up fights for the common good. They say they have already scored a few significant victories in Żurrieq, Qrendi and Safi, where development applications were frozen or refused after residents set up associations, organised press conferences and took to the streets in protest.

“When residents work together they grow closer together and feel part of the fight,” Borg said.

Flask added: “We’d also like to see this process work in other localities without the need for our intervention. One group which already works really well autonomously is the Marsascala Residents Network. These examples give us great courage.”

The left too fragmented?

Voters significantly switched to small parties and independent candidates in the MEP election, but there were not nearly enough of them to hit a quota. Furthermore, their topmost preferences were spread across too many different candidates. Consequently, no candidate garnered enough switchers’ votes to make it through the electoral system and get elected.

Do Borg and Flask feel like their new party will eventually add even more to the fragmentation which ultimately made it harder for everyone to get elected?

They do not think so and insist that the values of several independent candidates clash with theirs. One of those is Conrad Borg Manché, with whom Flask said he does not agree in principle.

Flask is a long-time critic of the big political parties, but he managed to identify some good things that Robert Abela and Bernard Grech did during their tenure.

Rent reform was one of Abela’s best decisions, he said, and Grech impressed him the most with the latest electoral result, not so much the MEP election result as the local councils one.

“The PN regained the majority in Gozo despite the fact that the PL made Clint Camilleri the government’s planning minister,” he said.

“However, both parties now need to decide whether they will govern for the people or for the developers, because so far, neither party has concretely and consistently come out against excessive development.”

Meanwhile, asked what pushed him away from the PL, Engerer said “the party stopped being the catalyst of change” and instead of embracing diversity and encouraged critical thinking, it took on a narrative and made policies aimed at the party hardcore.

“Fortress mentalities in parties lead to the ‘everyone is against us’ idea which is dangerous and which builds walls rather than bridges,” he said.

“It also gives the impression that some are superior to others, leading to arrogance and the ridicule of the rest.”