Nationalist MP Franco Debono will be voting with the government in tomorrow’s no confidence vote concerning Malta’s envoy to Brussels.
His declaration puts to rest weeks of speculation on whether he would back an opposition motion calling for the resignation of Richard Cachia Caruana, Malta’s permanent representative to the EU.
“Richard Cachia Caruana has good qualities and others which might be less good but I don’t believe he deserves a vote of no confidence,” the MP told The Sunday Times.
Two weeks ago Dr Debono voted with the opposition to oust former Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici but later supported the government in a confidence vote.
On a number of occasions Dr Debono has lashed out at Mr Cachia Caruana but yesterday the MP insisted his criticism was different from that of the Labour Party.
Mr Cachia Caruana faces a no confidence motion after the Labour Party accused him of conspiring behind Parliament’s back to seek Malta’s re-entry into the Partnership for Peace programme run by Nato, a military organisation, before the 2008 election.
However, Mr Cachia Caruana has insisted he was only trying to gain the country access to security information that was withheld from Malta at EU level because it was not part of PfP.
Tomorrow’s vote is expected to close the chapter of political turmoil that has gripped the country since January when the government narrowly won a vote of no confidence with the Speaker’s casting vote after Dr Debono abstained.
Meanwhile, Dr Debono’s Private Member’s Bill on political party financing will start being discussed at committee level tomorrow in Parliament.
“I invited representatives of the three main political parties for tomorrow’s meeting of the parliamentary committee I chair to kick-start the debate on the Bill,” he said.
This is the furthest the country has ever reached on such a law and the MP is expecting the political parties to approve the Bill before the next election “in the national interest”.
Last week Dr Debono’s 24-point motion on justice and home affairs reforms also started being debated and will continue on Tuesday.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com