The Labour Party’s former deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia will be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives, government sources have confirmed.
Joseph Muscat has repeatedly said he looks forward to working with Dr Farrugia again
An official announcement is expected following the results of the casual elections for Labour’s vacant seats tomorrow.
The information could not be confirmed officially yesterday. However, it is understood that Dr Farrugia held a meeting with the outgoing Speaker Michael Frendo this week.
When contacted, he said he did not wish to comment until an official announcement is made.
The appointment had been rumoured ever since Dr Farrugia had a meeting with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat a few days after the general election.
He had emerged from that 10-minute encounter indicating that he would “consider” the position.
The former Mosta MP resigned dramatically from deputy leader, a position he had occupied since 2008, after he was forced to do so by Dr Muscat ostensibly over comments he made about the political motivations of a magistrate.
Many analysts, however, understood Dr Muscat’s decision to have been driven by an embarrassing performance that had just been given by Dr Farrugia in a debate with his then counterpart Simon Busuttil on Xarabank.
Dr Farrugia himself indicated that the real reason was the Xarabank debate when he pointed out, in a strongly worded resignation letter, that Dr Muscat had applauded the speech in which he made the controversial reference to the magistrate.
He remained largely silent throughout the campaign save for a damning outburst in an interview with The Sunday Times, during which he described his forced resignation as a “cold blooded political assassination”.
Dr Muscat has repeatedly said that he looks forward to working with Dr Farrugia again.
Dr Farrugia has some experience of running the House, having presided over some of the sittings of the Budget debate in 1998 when he was required to use his casting vote after Dom Mintoff abstained. That Labour government still collapsed a month later on a motion linked to a vote of confidence.
Last week, Opposition leader Lawrence Gonzi urged the Government to appoint a serving Labour MP as Speaker in view of the government’s nine-seat parliamentary majority, which would have been seven had no vote-counting mistakes been made.
Back in 2008, then Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had offered the Speaker’s post to the Labour Opposition despite having a wafer-thin majority.
However, Labour declined the offer seeing it as a poisoned chalice, which would have effectively widened the government’s one-seat parliamentary majority since the Speaker only has a casting vote.