Acall for responsible behaviour by MPs is due in the light of Franco Debono’s political threat to scuttle the Budget as part of his long-running dispute with the Nationalist Party.
Even the most rabid of Labour Party supporters concede that the state of the economy is a source of reassurance for the future of the country whether it be run by a Nationalist or a Labour Administration. We have full employment and the financial services are performing exceptionally well, not to mention the serial records registered in the tourist sector.
The main credit international institutions still give thumbs up to Malta’s economic performance. These reassuring economic and financial results have been backed up by a government that has been steadfast over the past four years in doing its job in the face of open disregard to the most elementary principles of party loyalty by a small number of its backbenchers.
It is futile to try to understand why the Nationalist Parliamentary Group has ended up in this pathetic state; what matters is that, until now, the internal bickering within the Nationalist Party has not had any appreciable effect on the Government’s very sound performance in managing what matter most, namely our economic prestige within the EU and, above all, keeping our economy on the straight, narrow path of growth.
Muscat can only have a chance of winning the fast approaching election by convincing the electorate that he can build on the Gonzi Administration’s performance. Otherwise, the electorate will, undoubtedly, prefer to leave well alone an economic environment in which other EU states are drastically cutting salaries and, more alarmingly, pensions.
We will only become an advanced EU country if elections do not put into doubt the fundamentals of the State in foreign affairs, EU affairs and the economy. This is what stability is all about.
Debono fully grasps the serious implications to our national economy and, by consequence, to all of the Maltese and the Gozitans if he stalls the State’s single most important financial document.
On this he is alone among the Nationalist dissidents. Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has publicly committed himself not to bring down the Nationalist Government elected by the majority of the electorate. The thousands of voters who gave him the first preference vote wanted Lawrence Gonzi to be Prime Minister at least in equal measure as they wanted Pullicino Orlando to be an MP.
The inescapable democratic and political logic behind Pullicino Orlando’s position applies four-square to Debono. The Budget will certainly be criticised by the Opposition, elected to provide an alternate government.
However, the majority demands that the Government, which has done its duty very competently in the economic, tourist and financial sectors over the past four years, be allowed to complete its work serenely.
There are many issues which Debono may have legitimately raised to spur further reform within the Government and he knows that, on institutional issues, I have personally contributed within the parliamentary committee that he chairs.
It is in the same spirit of the better performance of our institutions that I appeal to Debono and, for that matter, to the other MPs elected by the majority of the voters, who, incidentally, are not all partisan Nationalists, to act in the best interests of the country and not to throw the country into economic and financial chaos through the non-approval of the Budget.
It would undoubtedly hurt our international rating and all this for what reason? The Constitution provides that this Parliament needs be dissolved within less than seven months and an election anyway requires three months of campaigning.
There is only one constitutional manner in which the Prime Minister may be forced to resign and have an election immediately forced upon him, which is a formal vote of no-confidence in terms of the Constitution.
Pullicino Orlando is publicly committed to vote against any such motion which, in turn, means that it will not be carried without Debono’s support.
Therefore, what logic is there to throw the country into financial chaos when, practically speaking, it would have no significant impact on when we will vote?