PN meets tomorrow, as Debono refuses to tone down criticism

Nationalist MP Franco Debono yesterday confirmed he would back Tuesday’s vote of confidence in the government, but refused to tone down his criticism.

The Prime Minister knows I’ve long been telling him to change tack- Debono

Dr Debono told The Sunday Times the Prime Minister should never have turned last Friday’s vote of no confidence in Transport Minister Austin Gatt into a collective vote against the entire Cabinet.

He compared this approach to a schoolchild (minister) who cannot handle an issue, and resorts to his friends (cabinet) to back him up.

“The Prime Minister agreed to play this game,” Dr Debono added.

He said his own suggestion to hold a vote of confidence in the government after he abstained in the confidence motion on Dr Gatt proved to be the right course of action.

Asked if his approach was threatening the Prime Minister’s leadership, Dr Debono said: “Rather than a leadership race, the party needs a soul-searching exercise to see why, during this legislature, the PN lost the European elections by 35,000 votes and also lost the divorce referendum.”

Asked if he was satisfied with the outcome of the vote, he said he did more than what should be expected of him “by Maltese standards” and would be stopping here, even though he said “it is now up to the minister to heed Parliament’s message”.

Asked whether he planned to target other Cabinet ministers, Dr Debono said: “Instability springs from within society. When you have a wrong policy decision or implementation or people calling for some progress in any issue, MPs are representatives of the people and they voice these concerns in Parliament.”

On whether he felt secure in his job as Parliamentary Assistant in the Office of the Prime Minister, Dr Debono said: “The Prime Minister knows my position. He knows I’ve long been telling him to change tack.”

Meanwhile, historian and one time general secretary of the Labour Party Dominic Fenech said Friday’s vote could not be equated to a crisis situation.

“I definitively don’t see this as a crisis,” he said, instead placing the vote in the context of the problems the PN has been having with its backbenchers during this legislature.

“It’s a complex problem of a party that has been in power for a long stretch and which won the last election by a whimper and has a single-seat majority,” Prof. Fenech said.

The country has had successful governments with a single-seat majority, but it happened at a time when the leaders’ “word is law”.

“Both in the case of Alfred Sant and that of Lawrence Gonzi, this is not the case, although I don’t want to be misinterpreted as comparing Mintoff to Franco Debono... it’s like comparing a tile to a TV set.”

In this case, Prof. Fenech said, the party accepted, after some backroom trading, that Dr Debono would abstain, even because his abstention did not really have any material impact – everyone knew the Speaker’s casting vote could settle the issue.

“But then the Prime Minister would call for a vote of confidence and Dr Debono would vote for it. I think it’s clear that the Prime Minister had an assurance in advance that he would vote for him,” he said.

PN backbencher Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has made a request to the party’s parliamentary group to “clear the air” ahead of the upcoming vote of confidence in the government.

“I think it’s always a good idea to meet up to find a common way forward.”

Asked if he interpreted Friday’s vote and Dr Debono’s speech as an attack on the government’s stability, Dr Pullicino Orlando said the forthcoming confidence vote and Friday’s vote were two separate issues.

“I think this is the reason behind the Prime Minister’s call for this confidence vote, which I support. We need to put people’s mind at rest that there is a stable government because it is not in the country’s interest to give the impression the government is unstable.”

Sources confirmed the parliamentary group meeting would be held tomorrow.