Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has applied for the role of Police Commissioner.
Muscat put in a last-minute application before the deadline this evening, despite never having held any position in the Malta Police Force.
“When I stepped down back in January, I had said that even though I’m no longer prime minister, I still have a lot left to give the country. Now, I can finally reveal what I meant,” Muscat said in a statement outside police headquarters in Floriana.
“I think we can all agree that my tenure was characterised from start to finish by a commitment to upholding the rule of law, barring a couple of minor exceptions that we don’t really need to talk about.”
The previous police commissioner, Lawrence Cutajar, who also resigned in January, was hand-picked by Muscat back in 2016.
“To be honest, most of the time I did his job for him. You could see it at the end, when I was holding all his press conferences,” the ex-PM said.
Asked what his priorities would be if chosen, Muscat said:
“I think in recent years the force has been putting too much focus on financial crime, money laundering and so on. What we need to do is go back to basics and work on bread-and-butter policing: helping little old ladies cross the street, eating pastizzi, rescuing cats from trees. No wait, that last one is the fire brigade isn’t it?”
Muscat also had a few words for his rivals for the post.
“Could you trust a guy who wears super-tight shirts to be a good commissioner?” Muscat said, presumably referring to outspoken police officer Inspector Sandro Camilleri, who has also applied.
“And frankly, I don’t know who any of the others are. What if they waste time and money investigating silly things like corruption? Not worth the risk, in my opinion.”
Muscat also mentioned who his pick would be for assistant commissioner.
“My good friend Keith Schembri, of course. We ride together, we die together. Bad boys for life.”
