Dalligate for Dummies

As Malta makes international headlines for all the wrong reasons, Christian Peregin wades through the information overload to make some sense of John Dalli’s fall from grace. John Dalli in brief John Dalli, an accountant by profession, is a veteran Maltese politician, first elected in 1987, who served most notably as a Finance Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister. In 2004, he contested the Nationalist Party’s leadership against now Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi. He was subsequently re-appointed to Cabinet but resigned months later amid corruption and nepotism allegations, citing attacks from other PN members. He was rehabilitated into the party before the 2008 election after the corruption allegations turned out to be fabricated. In 2010 he was nominated as EU Commissioner, a move largely seen as kicking him “upstairs”. Mr Dalli has two brothers: a priest and a controversial businessman who stands charged with importing a boatload of what he thought was cannabis but later turned out to be soap. He is also known to have several business links in Libya. First european commissioner to resign over wrongdoing The European Commission is the executive arm of the EU. It acts like a...