Updated 11.45 a.m.
The Nationalist Party said today that statements by Alex Sceberras Trigona about the government's democratic credentials, made in The Times this morning, were 'unbelievable' and it did not take lessons from him.
In his opinion piece, Dr Sceberras Trigona, a former foreign minister and currently the PL's international secretary, said that in spite of Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando's declaration of coalition with the government, his defection effectively deprived the government of its wafer-thin majority of some 1,500 first count votes and the premise upon which it was granted four extra seats to be able to govern.
The PN said that with his shameful past, Dr Sceberras Trigona should be ashamed to show his face in public, let alone have the cheek to call this democratically elected government 'undemocratic'.
"The Nationalist Party does not take lessons in democracy from someone who was a prominent cabinet member when labour governed Malta – with an iron fist - for five years, against the democratic will of the people.
"The Nationalist Party does not take lessons in democracy from someone who, when in power, trashed the hopes of thousands of young men and women.
"The Nationalist Party does not take lessons in democracy from someone who, when in power, staunchly defended Labour's dictatorial style of governing and was the reason why thousands of people lost their jobs.
"The Nationalist Party does not take lessons in democracy from someone who gave Malta a bad name in his long years as Malta's Foreign Affairs Minister," the PN said.
It added that it did not take lessons from from someone who sought close friendships with dictatorial regimes and signed a secret pact with Communist North Korea.
"Alex Sceberras Trigona should have called it a day ages ago – a political dinosaur of the worst type . Instead, he writes an article in The Times – the paper his party in government burned to the ground – and calls the Nationalist government 'undemocratic'" the Pn added.
"Truth is that if Labour is returned to power, people with Sceberras Trigona's shameful past will be calling the shots and dictating the way we live."
In his opinion piece, Dr Sceberras Trigona said Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando's resignation from the Nationalist parliamentary group had rendered the government "blatantly unrepresentative and undemocratic".
"Malta now has an undemocratic government. It arrogantly defies the very first article of the Constitution, which stipulates that 'Malta is a democratic republic...'"
A Foreign Affairs Minister in Dom Mintoff's 1981 Administration, which saw Labour return to power despite the Nationalist Party having won more first count votes, Dr Sceberras Trigona drew precisely on the constitutional amendments which followed that perverse result to make his point.
The PN won the 2008 election with a relative majority of 49.3 per cent against Labour's 48.8 per cent but this still gave the PN only 31seats (three less than Labour) because of the way the votes got distributed on the districts.
On this basis, "Dom Mintoff's 1987 'absolute majority' amendments" kicked in along with the derivative 1996 "relative majority" constitutional amendments, giving the Nationalists four more seats to be able to government.
However, with Dr Pullicino Orlando's resignation, the basis upon which this "donation" of seats was based is no more, Dr Sceberras Trigona insists, claiming the government has therefore lost its "constitutional legality".
See opinion piece: Undue compensation