Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, has appointed her aide and brother-in-law Matthew Tabone as the head of her cabinet, on a monthly salary of €15,000 to €20,000.
In 2022, Metsola had tried to appoint Tabone to the role but was forced to back down after her bid prompted an outcry.
This time she seems to have had little trouble in placing her brother-in-law in the position.
The EP rules from 2009 mandated that MEPs cannot appoint direct relations, but Tabone is not considered a first-degree relative.
Tabone began working at Metsola’s MEP office in 2013 and has been a member of her cabinet since her election as EP President, most recently as head of private office and public relations.
In a statement, the European Parliament stated on August 29: “In the last years, Tabone has led different teams within the cabinet, including managing a transparency reform and being tasked with the co-ordination of the President’s engagement with the European public in the run-up to the European Parliament elections last June.”
Günther Oettinger, who formerly served as the European Commissioner’s digital economy tsar, is reported to have become a consultant for Shein despite the online retailer facing several accusations regarding its working practices. https://t.co/6kmcuFEzH7
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 21, 2024
Tabone is the grandson of former Maltese President Censu Tabone.
Leticia Zuleta De Reales Ansaldo, Tabone’s predecessor, is now the director for relations with national parliaments within the European Parliament.
The former Labour MP from Malta, Rosianne Cutajar, referred to the appointment as “nepotism”.
“Naturally, there has been deafening silence by the opposition, the paladins of ethics and the so-called independent media in the face of this blatant nepotism,” the politician said.
“Metsola had already tried to promote him to chief of staff and faced strong resistance during the Qatargate scandal but she couldn’t give a toss after the election and appointed him anyway.”
Frank Furedi, director of MCC Brussels was more laconic in tone: “Why Not? EU oligarchs like to keep it in the family,” he said.
EU Green Deal architect takes top job with Dutch gas firm — without EC permission. https://t.co/75yYQjnQpX
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 1, 2024
The installing of Tabone is not the first time Metsola has made a controversial appointment.
In 2022, she also promoted Alessandro Chiocchetti, her then-chief of staff, to the powerful position of secretary-general of the Parliament, whose office oversees the institution’s workings. Opponents of that appointment accused her of nepotism and of hashing out a secret deal to keep top jobs in the hands of the European People’s Party in the parliament.
The EP President countered and said it was “the most open procedure in the history of the institution”.
Metsola hails from Malta and is rumoured to have ambitions to return to national politics in the 2027 parliamentary elections. She had a good result in the European Parliament elections and is seen as a top candidate to combat the Socialists, who are in power on the Mediterranean island.
Malta has been rocked by numerous political scandals in recent years. High-ranking Maltese officials such as former energy minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri [both Socialists] were involved in the 2016 Panama Papers scandal. They both pleaded innocence.
On December 22, 2021, Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri, and their immediate families were sanctioned by the United States Department of State for their involvement in “significant corruption.”
In 2017, investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who had been reporting on government corruption, was killed in a car bombing.
The island also had a “golden passports” scheme, where the government sold citizenship to wealthy foreigners without, it has been reported, sufficient vetting. Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat [also a Socialist] had to resign following protests over his government’s handling of the investigation into Caruana Galizia’s death.
He, together with Mizzi and Schembri, has also been charged with money laundering, corruption, bribery among other allegations regarding a deal to privatise three State hospitals.
The same deal also implies Malta’s ex-Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne, which led to his hopes of becoming EU Commissioner go up in flames. Fearne says he’s innocent.
Caruana Galizia had also accused Adrian Delia, the former leader of Metosla’s Nationalist Party, of links to a London-based prostitution racket, which he denied.
Malta Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne resigned on Friday amid a corruption scandal over a 2015 government concession for the management of three state hospitals granted to a previously unknown healthcare group. https://t.co/jlUHY1gn0A
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) May 10, 2024
