Nationalist MP Franco Debono this morning denied claims by Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami that he wanted to become Prime Minister and that he had told him that were he to be PM, he would appint Dr Fenech Adami as Justice Minister.

"I ask him to indicate the time and place where I said that because this is absolutely false and invented. It is a complete and utter lie and I'm sure no one will believe it," Dr Debono told timesofmalta.com.

Dr Fenech Adami made his claim this morning on Radio Malta's programme Ghandi x'Nghid. (see http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120121/local/debono-has-been-mounting-pressure-to-be-made-minister-for-years-beppe-fenech-adami.403179).

Dr Debono said that he had even told Dr Fenech Adami in St George’s Square one day late last year that he would not accept any position, should this be offered to him.

“I think even Dr Fenech Adami has aspirations and he has various and more accessible channels to push them forward,” Dr Debono said.

Dr Debono said it was also a lie that he wanted the Nationalist Party to issue any statement against Louis Galea. It was the party which had come up with the slogan of GonziPN and new faces, possibly prejudicing the people who had been working in the party for a long time, he said.

"I had nothing to do with that. It was Richard Cachia Caruana who boasted that he had come up with this concept," Dr Debono said.

Dr Galea's drawback, he said, was that Charlo Bonnici, who had been his personal assistant at his ministry, had left a few weeks or months before the election to manage his campaign. The districts were not a drawback to Dr Galea but to himself, Dr Debono said.

He said that what Dr Fenech Adami said, was absolutely and completely false and he hoped such behaviour was not 'inherited' because if this was the case history had to be rewritten.

"I have to go to court every day to work without anyone's help, and unlike others I do not have the luxury to get retainers from some of the main business contractors on the island or vetting contracts at Bov. I have chosen to do my job as a proper lawyer fighting out cases in the court room. My practice is based on private clients and everyone can judge my performance and that of others.

"Are these allegations similar to those by Eddie Fenech Adami on the eve of the election for which he had lost a libel suit?"

Dr Debono said that what he had asked for was for the party to put him in a position to contribute. "What Dr(Beppe)  Fenech Adami did not say was that I got as much votes as him in the last election, from a labour leaning district and without having a former Prime Minister for a father. My father is a civil servant. Moreover there had been three and not two ministers on my district. So I fared much better than him."

Referring to the allegation that he had wanted to get back at Transport Minister Austin Gatt for an incident 10 years ago when, as a lawyer, he represented a family who was requesting compensation which Dr Gatt had believed was too high, Dr Debono said he regretted having to speak in public about this but now he had to make some things clear.

Sometime after he became lawyer, he said, he started to defend the heirs of Nardu Debono in a case claiming compensation. On a television programme hosted by Pierre Portelli on Net TV, Dr Gatt, then Justice Minister, had said that since they were heirs and not the actual victim they would not be granted compensation.

But when the family engaged Dr Joe Zammit Maempel to represent them, they were granted more than Lm100,000 in compensation as well as legal fees.

Although he was not saying that this had to do anything with this issue, Dr Debono said, Dr Zammit Maempel was Dr Gatt's brother-in-law.

This issue, he said, had nothing to do with the Arriva disaster which was a fact so much so that Dr (Eddie) Fenech Adami himself had said, and it was reported, that Manuel Delia had made a fiasco out of the matter.

As for the claims that he wanted Carm Mifsud Bonnici removed from minister, Dr Debono, who has proposed a series of reforms, said that everybody knew that since 2009 he had been in complete disagreement with the way Dr Mifsud Bonnici had been handling his ministry regarding the law courts, prison, the discretion granted to the Attorney General and the fact that the police were still without a union and without an adequate forensic lab, besides other shortcomings.

It was true that at a certain point in time it seemed that the minister was ill but, on the other hand, he was still writing articles in newspapers so he could not know whether he was ill or not. The fact was not that he wanted to become minister but that people who did not perform were being retained.

As a practicing criminal lawyer, he said, he had been putting pressure on the Prime Minister indicating serious shortcomings, some of which had been confirmed by European Court decisions.

"Has our democracy degenerated so much," he asked.

“This country belongs to all Maltese and not to a selected oligarchy.

“I do not have a media or propaganda machine at my disposal. I am only supported by reason and Maltese people of goodwill who can understand what I am saying and share my preoccupations even in their environment and at their workplaces,” Dr Debono said.

Dr Debono said that the PN was not the private party of two or three families or a couple of individuals. The people's real interest is who the people always getting appointments are and why. One should not expect everyone to keep silent and not even inquire how the same people were getting different appointments.

In view of Dr Fenech Adami's claims one could also see if any of his close friends had received any appointments.

He said that he had never wanted any appointment from Dr (Eddie) Fenech Adami, with whom he had also spoken about four times, but he had told Dr (Beppe) Fenech Adami various times that even though his father had never given him opportunities, he understood the great working relationship that there was between him and Louis Galea. He had told him that he understood that he had to wait for his turn to come.

Almost as a reaction to what Dr Fenech Adami said, Dr Debono later this morning presented a private member’s motion on party financing.