A stormy meeting of the House Business Committee yesterday failed to provide much direction towards solving the political crisis as government and opposition MPs asked whether the others would table a confidence motion.

The government side insisted that Parliament should proceed normally on Wednesday, when Parliament reconvenes after the Christmas recess, unless the opposition tabled a motion of no confidence in the government.

It also pointed out that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi would be travelling to Tunisia and Qatar on official visits between Monday and Thursday, a declarationwhich drew an immediate rebuke from the Labour party.

‘We want to discuss Bills’

In a statement later it accused Dr Gonzi of being irresponsible for going abroad when he should be assuring stability. “It is clear that these visits were only confirmed in the last few hours after this crisis arose and the only aim is to make the Prime Minister play the victim when he has to cancel them.”

It added that Dr Gonzi had told his MPs, during their parliamentary group meeting earlier this week, not to go abroad next week.

Both the Nationalist Party and the Office of the Prime Minister shot back that Labour’s only intention was to hinder the government’s attempts to generate more work and attract investment.

“The spokes in the wheels being put by the opposition undermine workers and their families,” the PN said.

The OPM said the visits had been planned last year, so the Labour party was wrong to conclude it had just been scheduled.

In the meeting, the opposition refused to agree on an agenda before the instability issue was addressed and asked for the committee to meet again on Monday, hinting that it might present a motion before then though not saying so explicitly.

Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat has said he would take “decisive action” to resolve the crisis if the government did not do so itself.

Parliamentary work must continue- Carm Mifsud Bonnici

This was the first House Business Committee meeting attended by Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici in his new role as Leader of the House, which he took over from Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg following Friday’s Cabinet reshuffle, which sparked the ongoing crisis.

Outraged by the reshuffle, Nationalist MP Franco Debono last week said he would vote against the government if a vote of no confidence was called unless the Prime Minister resigned.

One of Dr Debono’s gripes was that Dr Mifsud Bonnici was retained despite failing to deliver enough reform over the last four years, particularly in the justice sector, a portfolio that is now the responsibility of Chris Said. Although Dr Mifsud Bonnici began timidly and joked about always finding himself in a hot seat, there were moments when opposition fired him up. He defended his new turf strongly and at several instances even shushed government whip David Agius when he interjected while refuting the opposition’s claims that he did not take things seriously or misunderstood the Constitution.

“I want you to answer a straight question: Does the government intend to check if it has a working majority in Parliament,” the deputy Leader of the Opposition, Anġlu Farrugia, asked him at the start of the meeting.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici replied that there was no motion of confidence before the committee and asked whether the opposition planned to table one.

He said the House was due to debate the Education Bill and a Bill to enact the budgetary measures but between the two he would like to wedge in the constitutional amendment regarding the statutory achievement of a balanced Budget as pushed for by the EU.

Opposition whip Joe Mizzi said there was instability not only in the country but also in Parliament because the Prime Minister clearly no longer enjoyed a majority.

It was therefore the government’s duty to quell instability by calling a vote.

“If you are not going to (check if you have a working majority) tell us and we can stop talking and meet again on Monday,” Mr Mizzi said.

He quoted Lawrence Gonzi saying only last November that he was not prepared to leave the country in any doubt about the government’s stability.

Mr Agius objected and said Dr Gonzi was being quoted out of context. “Dr Gonzi said that in Parliament after a motion of confidence in Transport Minister Austin Gatt was only passed thanks to the Speaker’s casting vote. It happened in Parliament,” he said.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici accused the opposition of being in an undue rush to seize power and insisted that Parliament could not discuss hypothetical issues.

“Parliamentary work must continue. We cannot allow for this instability (of not having a fixed agenda for Wednesday’s sitting),” he said.

Labour MPs present asked him to own up to the real instability in the country and questioned which was more important: the government crisis or the crisis of not having an agenda until Monday.

“That we want to continue discussions on the Bills before Parliament is a statement in itself,” Dr Mifsud Bonnici retorted.

At one point in the discussion, Speaker Michael Frendo, who presides over the committee, told Dr Mifsud Bonnici and Mr Mizzi to calm down and said that “this is not a Cottonera issue”.

As the opposition MPs maintained their position of wanting to meet again on Monday, possibly after they presented a motion of no confidence, Dr Mifsud Bonnici insisted that, if no motion was tabled, business must continue as usual. If such a motion was presented by the opposition it would be accepted for debate, as always.

The Speaker ended the discussion and adjourned the meeting without setting a specific date.