Speaker Anġlu Farrugia in his parliamentary office with a photograph of his daughter, Caroline, in the background. Photo: Mark Zammit CordinaSpeaker Anġlu Farrugia has denied exerting any pressure for his 32-year-old daughter to be appointed magistrate.
When contacted, Dr Farrugia ruled out any backroom deals. He laughed off a direct question on the matter: “You know me well enough,” he said.
Dr Farrugia refused to make any further comment when asked for his views on her appointment.
“I have no reaction. You should ask her. When they called her she called me an hour later and told me: ‘Daddy, they called me from the Justice Ministry’. I told her it’s your decision. She has her own life and her own family.”
The magisterial nomination of Caroline Farrugia Frendo, who is a month shy of the minimum seven years’ experience requisite to be eligible for the post, sent shockwaves through the legal profession and caused a political storm.
Malta Today last week claimed that Dr Farrugia Frendo’s nomination was interpreted as a “sop” to her father after he expressed interest in being nominated by the government to the European Court of Auditors. But instead, the newspaper reported, Dr Muscat picked Labour’s deputy leader for party affairs, Toni Abela, for the Luxembourg posting.
I told her it’s your decision. She has her own life and her own family
But Dr Farrugia denied having any interest in the €240,000-a-year job, saying he was happy as Speaker.
“I had nothing to do with Dr Muscat’s decision to choose Dr Abela. I did not react to the news and it is the Prime Minister’s prerogative,” Dr Farrugia said, adding that the job was not on his bucket list.
Asked about his political future, Dr Farrugia did not rule out contesting the next general election. “I still have a lot to contribute,” he said.
Dr Farrugia was deputy leader of the Labour Party between 2008 and December 2012, when he resigned over his allegation that a magistrate was politically biased – a comment that party leader Joseph Muscat described as unacceptable.
Dr Muscat had asked Dr Farrugia, a former Mosta MP, to step down because the remark was “out of place” and “undermined one of the country’s highest institutions”.
Magistrate Audrey Demicoli was on the receiving end of Dr Farrugia’s flak after she acquitted a man accused of rigging votes in the March 2008 election. Her judgment had been overturned by an appeals court, which found the restaurateur guilty of threatening to sack one of his employees if she did not vote for the PN. The restaurateur was fined €800.
Speaking at a political event shortly after the appeal judgment, Dr Farrugia accused the magistrate of political bias and mentioned that her father had been heavily involved in the PN’s machinery and strategy team.
I still have a lot to contribute
Dr Farrugia did not contest the 2013 general election but a month after Labour was elected to office, Dr Muscat offered him the post of Speaker.
The nomination of Dr Farrugia’s daughter as magistrate opened up another can of worms, and raised questions over whether this was a political appointment.
Another nominee for magistrate, Ingrid Zammit Young, withdrew after the Commission for the Administration of Justice declared she was constitutionally ineligible since she had been appointed by the government as chairwoman of the Employment Commission.