Labour and Nationalist candidates were at pains to stick to the script during a PBS debate today, with Marlene Farrugia providing some colour by brandishing an old Labour flag in a bid to attract Labourites to the PN’s coalition.
The recording of the debate had to be halted at one point when Dr Farrugia started to drown out a point being made by minister Helena Dalli about her former colleague’s political flip-flopping.
A second take proved to be more successful, as Dr Dalli could be heard saying that it had become hard to keep up with where Dr Farrugia’s political allegiances lie.
“She was with the PN. Then she was with Labour. Now she’s with the PN. It’s hard to keep up,” Dr Dalli said.
Dr Dalli accused Dr Farrugia of doing a disservice to domestic violence victims, as she had verbally disparaged a number of Labour MPs in Parliament.
She said the PN-PD’s coalition’s official Facebook page was spreading a message encouraging people to undermine dancer Felix Busuttil, just because he spoke at a Labour mass meeting on Sunday.
Labour MP Silvio Schembri said Dr Farrugia had tried to stir up trouble by attending two Labour events shortly after her resignation from the party in 2015.
Luckily cool heads had prevailed and no one reacted to Dr Farrugia’s bait, Mr Schembri said.
He said the only thing uniting the PN’s coalition was its animosity towards Joseph Muscat.
Dr Farrugia said the upcoming election was a clear choice between the “so-called PL”, which in fact stood for “Panama Labour, and a national force which loved and respected the country.
Brandishing the old ‘Malta Labour Party’ flag, which was phased out several years ago, Dr Farrugia said there was room for Nationalists, Labourites and Mintoffians in the national coalition.
PN MP Clyde Puli argued that Malta’s economic growth was not trickling down to people.
Taking a dig at the PL’s elections slogan, Mr Puli said these certainly were the best times for people like the Gaffarenas of this world.
A budget surplus was not the government only achievement, Mr Puli said, as it had also seen through a surplus in criminality, a surplus in traffic, and a surplus for the GWU who were administering a precarious work scheme.
Mr Puli said Labour should stop using “gays” when its back was against the wall. He said the PN had committed to introducing gay marriage, which was something that Labour failed to do.
Both parties ruled out the introduction of abortion, while Dr Dalli said the PL was willing to talk to the terminally ill about euthanasia.
Dr Dalli said a Labour government would continue to strengthen social dialogue. She questioned where PN candidate Josie Muscat stood on the civil liberties given by the current government.