The Opposition briefly walked out of Parliament yesterday following a ruling from the Speaker over objectionable language exchanged between Joe Debono Grech (PL) and Marlene Farrugia (Ind) on Friday.
Speaker Anġlu Farrugia ordered them to retract their words but Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil said: “We refuse to accept that the person who was threatened [Dr Farrugia] should be placed on the same footing as the person who uttered the threats.”
He said the incident was doubly worrying, as a woman was threatened by a man.
In his ruling, the Speaker said that he had listened to recordings of the sitting, seen the footage and investigated what words were used.
He had also spoken to Mr Debono Grech, Dr Farrugia and other MPs, including Luciano Busuttil, Deborah Schembri, Godfrey Farrugia and Anthony Agius Decelis (PL), as the recordings were not clear.
Dr Farrugia said she had heard Mr Debono Grech calling her pulċinell (clown). She replied in kind, calling him pulċinell about four times. He then told her niġi għalik u nifqgħak (I’ll come and bash you).
Labour whip Godfrey Farrugia, Dr Farrugia’s partner, confirmed the exchange and said he had warned Mr Debono Grech he would protect her.
Deborah Schembri (PL) said she heard Marlene Farrugia calling Mr Debono Grech pulcinell, skadut (expired) and the word korrot (corrupt) was also used. Other MPs also described what they had heard.
We refuse to accept that the person who was threatened should be placed on the same footing as the person who uttered the threats
Marlene Farrugia denied calling Mr Debono Grech corrupt.
In his ruling, the Speaker noted that neither Dr Farrugia nor Mr Debono Grech had invoked breach of privilege.
He said he had repeatedly warned that misbehaviour would not be tolerated and instructed Dr Farrugia and Mr Debono Grech to retract the objectionable words used against each other.
Dr Farrugia said that if she had used disparaging words she was withdrawing them. Mr Debono Grech said he was also withdrawing any disparaging language that might have been used.
Speaking to the media after the Opposition walked out of the House, Dr Busuttil said the Opposition would present a motion to contest the Speaker’s ruling.
Commenting on Facebook, Dr Farrugia said she felt ashamed to be a member of the House.
She said the sort of words used by Mr Debono Grech were also the words heard by women who were victims of aggression.
Later, she again voted with the Opposition during the debate on the Environment Protection Bill. The vote was on the Opposition’s proposed amendment, based on a recommendation by the Commissioner for Environment and Planning, that the State of the Environment report should be prepared by the Ombudsman’s office and then discussed in Parliament.
While the government agreed that the Ombudsman should analyse the environment report, it held that the same experts who had drafted previous reports should continue to do so and Parliament should then discuss both the report and the Ombudsman’s analysis.
A division was called, with the government voting against the report and the Opposition and Dr Farrugia in favour.