Gonzi again offers Speaker's chair to the opposition

The Prime Minister yesterday reiterated his offer to appoint a Speaker from the opposition if a solution on parliamentary pairing was reached.

He said the decision on who would replace Speaker Louis Galea, recently nominated to the European Court of Auditors, would be taken by the government in mid-April.

Dr Galea will take up his new office in May, if everything proceeds as planned, and, therefore, he said, the person to stand in his shoes would have to be chosen by mid-April.

The government's proposal to appoint a Speaker from the opposition benches was made at the start of the legislature but there was never any agreement. The move was seen by many as a poisoned chalice for Labour, given that the opposition would effectively lose an MP to the government side, since the Speaker only has a casting vote.

When it was made, "the proposal was tied to pairing. Unfortunately, the opposition started, and continued, the legislature with a totally negative attitude... saying no to everything. I don't think this situation will be unblocked. If they are interested, they can tell me they changed their mind," he said.

Asked about a Nationalist parliamentary group meeting that took place on Tuesday, Dr Gonzi described the event as very positive and "good", adding that they discussed how they could work better as a group and individually.

He said that in the coming weeks he would see how to follow up what was discussed but would not elaborate.

Sources confirmed that the meeting was indeed positive, adding that it broadly addressed the misgivings of the backbenchers who had been voicing their dissent with the government over the past months.

Dr Gonzi announced that the PN parliamentary whip, David Agius, would be sitting in the front bench of the House, in the seat vacated by former Social Policy Minister John Dalli, who was recently appointed European commissioner.