Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat cranked up the political pressure yesterday warning the Prime Minister that if he failed to take “decisive action” to resolve the ongoing political crisis the Labour Party would do so itself.
In any other democracy the government would already have called for a confidence vote
“I am ready to assume responsibility and take decisions where the Prime Minister is unwilling to do so,” Dr Muscat told journalists yesterday afternoon, stopping short of explicitly saying that the PL would be calling for a vote of no confidence in the government.
Such a vote would automatically trigger an election if Nationalist MP Franco Debono sticks to his guns and votes against the government, as he has indicated he will do.
Later, following the PN executive committe meeting held in the evening which again backed Lawrence Gonzi’s position, Dr Muscat was asked when he would move a no-confidence motion. He said he would await the outcome of a House Business Committee meeting to be held today.
This committee sets Parliament’s agenda, including votes on money bills such as one due to be taken on the implementation of the budgetary measures.
Earlier, Dr Debono declined to comment on Dr Muscat’s announcement, limiting himself to saying that “it was pretty obvious that was what will happen.”
Dr Debono has said he would not back the government in a money bill. If the vote were lost it would paralyse the government financially, making going to the polls inevitable.
The Prime Minister has so far resisted calls for a parliamentary vote of confidence, telling The Sunday Times that he would “not be blackmailed” by Dr Debono and that the crisis was an internal party issue rather than a government one.
But his words have done little to quell speculation about an imminent election over the past days, with Dr Muscat yesterday saying that “the Prime Minister has done nothing to ease instability over the past five days, putting his own political interest before that of the nation”.
“The economy is grinding to a halt and jobs are being endangered,” Dr Muscat said, adding that instability was hurting ordinary citizens most of all. He accused Dr Gonzi of lacking courage, saying that “in any other democracy the government would already have called for a confidence vote”.
The PL’s willingness to crank things up a notch was not about political opportunism, Dr Muscat said, but rather in the interest of national stability. According to him, “the longer the Prime Minister drags his feet, the better it is for the PL. But our primary responsibility is towards the nation”.
He called on Dr Gonzi to “take the honourable path” and opt for a confidence vote.
In its response, the Nationalist Party said that it was Dr Muscat himself who was sowing national instability, accusing him of “making use of Franco Debono” despite the public “clearly indicating that an election now was not in the national interest”.
Parliament is in recess and will not reconvene until Wednesday, after Speaker Michael Frendo turned down an Oppostion request to meet urgently.