Nationalist MP Franco Debono has said that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi would like him to contest the next general election on a PN ticket.
Dr Debono’s claim comes after the Nationalist Party Executive last week condemned him for voting with the opposition to depose former minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.
Questions have been raised about the MP’s political future, with the Prime Minister saying that rebels within the parliamentary group would have to “shoulder the consequences of their actions”.
Fellow PN MPs Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett were also condemned by their PN executive for failing to support the government in a parliamentary vote last week on a Labour motion, which forced the resignation of EU Ambassador Richard Cachia Caruana.
But while Dr Pullicino Orlando and Mr Mugliett have made it clear they intend to step out of the political scene at the end of the current legislature, Dr Debono has indicated he is eager to remain within the political fold.
All three were all guests on TVM political discussion programme Dissett yesterday, with each given a 20-minute slot to defend their respective decisions to step out of line and disregard their party whip’s instructions.
Dr Debono, combative as ever, shrugged off any suggestion that he was backing the government to atone for his previous actions.
“I don’t need any party forgiveness, because I didn’t do anything wrong... I was the sacrificial lamb”.
Dr Debono last week wrote to the party’s executive committee asking it to revoke the statement condemning him.
He said his grievances were procedural in nature, pointing out that the matter at issue had not been on the agenda of the executive meeting, and in any case, he could not attend the meeting because he was speaking in Parliament about his 24-point motion about major reforms in justice and home affairs.
In yesterday’s TV programme Dr Pullicino Orlando heaped scorn on the executive’s decision to condemn him for having voted for Mr Cachia Caruana’s removal. “Only in totalitarian states do political parties condemn their own MPs for their parliamentary voting patterns. There’s no justification for the executive of a party which wants to call itself democratic doing what it did,” Dr Pullicino Orlando said.
The Zebbuġ MP’s decision to cross the floor during last week’s vote left the Prime Minister “surprised”, but Dr Pullicino Orlando yesterday insisted there was nothing unexpected about his position.
“I’ve been telling the Prime Minister the exact same things I said in Parliament last week, word-for-word, for the past four years.
Mr Mugliett felt that the PN executive was in the grasp of party hardliners, who forced everyone to fall into line. “It’s not the first time,” he noted, adding that “people now think of the executive as the PN’s Politburo”.