Former Labour minister Joe Debono Grech, 84, has been reappointed on the Gozo Channel board of directors, according to the latest edition of the Malta Government Gazette.
The fiery former Labour politician, who did not contest the last general elections after decades in parliament, had his term on the Gozo Channel (Operations) Limited board extended until November 22, 2024.
The former Transport Minister and former Labour deputy leader who served as a Labour MP for more than 50 years, was appointed by Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri.
Debono Grech attended Camilleri’s rally in the run-up to the last general election in March 2022, endorsing him as a candidate.
Debono Grech, whose late wife was Gozitan, made headlines on that occasion when he admitted that the party was corrupt but said that at least it has “gained something from it”.
He even used a biblical allegory to drive his point home.
“Christ said that there were two thieves. The good one, and the bad one. We’re with the good one,” he said to applause in Xewkija.
The speech was condemned by Prime Minister Robert Abela who dissociated himself from what was said.
“This is why the PL has renewed itself… to eliminate such language,” the prime minister said when asked by Times of Malta whether he was the "good thief or the bad thief".
Debono Grech had embraced Dom Mintoff’s rallying call of “soldiers of steel”, and had threatened to assault Marlene Farrugia in parliament soon after she resigned as a Labour MP and became an independent in 2015.
"I will come and smash you," [niġi u nifqgħek], he had said. He later apologised.
In 1998, during the upheaval in parliament when Labour was about to lose its majority in the house, then-minister Debono Grech had attempted to physically assault Mintoff after he voted against the government led by Alfred Sant.
The other members on the Gozo Channel board are Joe Cordina (chairperson), Marlene Cini (company secretary), Godwin Agius, George Paul Camilleri, Joe Debono Grech, Josephine Hili, Tania Vella, Anthony Bugeja, Carmel Buttigieg and Joseph Said.