Embattled Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici publicly asked the Prime Minister to relieve him of his duties as Leader of the House, saying it was a position he could no longer hold serenely. He could then continue to concentrate on home affairs, immigration and local councils.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici had just started a three-and-a-half-hour-long defence against the opposition motion censuring him for his handling of the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry and calling for his resignation. He said later he did not deserve to have to resign.

He had always brought forward Bills to give the Maltese people a better life, protect the vulnerable, particularly children, and treat the wrongdoer justly. He had also introduced a mechanism for reform after one had paid for one’s crime. The great number of important legal changes, which he enumerated at length, had moved the country forward to progress and change.

The concomitant duties concerning illegal immigration were not easy, with daily changing scenarios. In the evening session, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the next months would present Malta with more challenges in a fluid situation until Libya became stronger. But Malta would continue to help the UNHCR to become stronger in Libya to filter asylum requests on the ground there.

He announced that Libyan Interior Minister Fawzi Abdel Aal would be visiting Malta next week for talks which would focus on immigration

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said this debate had shown that nothing could really be held against him except a lack of agreement about what, when and how to have done things. The rest had been incorrect, inexact and mud-slinging.

He had been particularly irked by all that had been said about the Nicholas Azzopardi case. As two separate inquiries had shown, he had nothing to hide. For weeks he had kept the findings of the inquiry by Judge Albert Manché available in his office for public scrutiny, but nobody had come forward.

He would now lay the findings on the table of the House to further facilitate such scrutiny. If any new information came to light it would be brought forward.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the Police Corps had been exonerated in both inquiries into the deaths of Nicholas Azzopardi and Bastjan Borg. He himself had always been careful not to drag personal tragedies into politics.

Dr Falzon’s allegations of a demotivated police corps had been put paid to with the 230 applications for 100 recruitment places. Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the government was committed to making the Malta Police Association an in-house union.

His results spoke for themselves, he said. The opposition should give credit, not manifest envy. He had nothing to hide of his ministerial tenure, which to date had given him the greatest satisfaction.

Resuming his speech in the evening, Dr Mifsud Bonnici dwelt in detail on the hundreds of changes passed through Parliament to strengthen the rule of law and the judicial system. These changes had touched on most aspects of life in Malta, be it family or business, and in many cases afforded swifter justice.

Concluding, Dr Mifsud Bonnici insisted he had worked hard and well and had always done his part to bring the ministry forward.

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