Nationalist General secretary Paul Borg Olivier has criticised comments made by Nationalist MP Franco Debono, who has told the prime minister that he will not back the government unless the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs is split by year's end.

Speaking to The Times, Dr Borg Olivier said that such remarks were not helpful.

But in a comment on timesofmalta.com replying to Dr Borg Olivier, Dr Debono, who is still at home recovering from an anxiety attack, said there was a lot more Dr Borg Olivier could have said including that he had been at his home when the Prime Minister made his promise.

When asked whether the party would censure or discipline the MP for threatening the government's stability, Dr Borg Olivier said: "Unfortunately, given the serious European economic and financial crisis, the instability in world markets and the challenges facing the euro, such comments are not particularly helpful."

On Wednesday night, Dr Debono shocked the country when he told timesof malta.com that unless Dr Gonzi split the home affairs and justice portfolios by the end of the year he would not vote with the government. He insisted that it was Dr Gonzi himself who had told him that the portfolios would be separated by the end of the year and he was insisting that the promise be respected.

Dr Debono said in his comment this morning:

"I think Dr Borg Olivier should have said he was almost sleeping in our kitchen to convince me to vote, because with a clear conscience I had great difficulties to vote in favour of a ministry, which I had been saying for years had a completely wrong attitude to justice and home affairs."

Dr Borg Oliver knew that a bad decision he had taken and he later had to remedy has caused untold harm to his health over the past years, Dr Debono said adding he had never spoken about this in public.

Asked to elaborate, Dr Debono said that when he became Parliamentary Assistant, the chief of staff at the OPM, Edgar Galea Curmi informed him that former PN candidate Hermann Schiavone had spoken to him some months earlier with regards to an anonymous letter which had been sent to the party leadership some weeks before the 2003 election. His wife had then contested instead of him.

In 2008, the Schiavones, who were abroad, were completely absent from the political scheme.

Mr Galea Curmi, Dr Debono said, had told him that fingers had been pointed at him. Dr Debono said he immediately told Mr Galea Curmi that he should have taken action on the matter.

The fact that the party had not acted on an allegation had caused him undue harm, Dr Debono said, and he reported the incident to the police himself.

Dr Debono said that he appreciated the fact that Mr Galea Curmi had been gentleman enough to tell him but he had expected to be told earlier.

Returning to Dr Borg Olivier's statements, Dr Debono said Dr Borg Olivier  should have said that he was at his home when the PM informed him he would be splitting ministries by the end of the year.

"He was also aware of the state of my health and he was at my home when Dr Jean Pierre Farrugia came to visit me.

"Dr Borg Olivier is aware that I am fed up with the situation of democracy in Malta and that I am ready to leave everything I have built with much sacrifice, on my own, and with no one's help, least from the party, and leave the country, and my family and go to Italy, where I have always wanted to work.

"When i was elected at 33, I had built a legal office from nothing, made a name for myself as a criminal lawyer and managed to get elected from an impossible district as the youngest government mp after contesting three elections.

"I already had to endure a lot and it was only my great loyalty which kept me in the PN," he said.

The Office of the Prime Minister yesterday referred to the remarks made by Dr Gonzi last month, two days before the vote on the budget estimates of the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, that he was considering splitting the ministry.

When asked whether he had given Dr Debono such a timeframe, Dr Gonzi did not reply and also declined to say whether he would consider an early election.

The Prime Minister also refrained from saying how he felt about Dr Debono's outburst and the threat to withdraw parliamentary support.

Dr Borg Olivier was more scathing in his replies , insisting that Dr Debono's comments "must have sounded like music to Labour Party ears".

Dr Borg Olivier answered with a plain "no" when asked whether he found the MP's behaviour acceptable. He said Dr Debono was not correct to insist that the promise to split the portfolios be implemented by year's end.

Numerous attempts to contact Home Affairs and Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici yesterday proved futile.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici has been heavily criticised by Dr Debono for his handling of the two portfolios.

On Tuesday, Dr Mifsud Bonnici was a guest on TVM programme Bondiplus. 

A spokesman for Labour leader Joseph Muscat said the government had "a defective majority" and was "past its expiry date" .

"The country needs stability during these testing times and Lawrence Gonzi is clearly not able to provide it ," the spokesman said when asked whether an early election was the only way out of this impasse.

ksansone@ timesofmalta. com