‘Lack of policy direction’ led Cremona to quit Democratic Party

The Partit Demokratiku’s former secretary-general, Marco Cremona has said he resigned from the party after growing irked at its lack of policy direction under its leader Marlene Farrugia. 

Marco Cremona, a hydrologist, told MaltaToday that he had wanted PD to use its early months to develop its own identity that would be separate to that of Farrugia. 

“For a political party to form an identity, it must first believe in something,” he said. “The PD executive had a wide spectrum of different beliefs and although we frequently exchanged views, we never got down to thrashing our opinions to form a united party stance. I wanted the party to start studying national issues that impact people the most, such as traffic and poverty, with the intention of coming out with concrete policy proposals. I had made myself clear, but I faced internal resistance and eventually lost heart and decided to pack my bags.”

Marlene Farrugia had originally claimed that Cremona had resigned after realizing that he was unable to commit to the job as much as he would have liked to. When informed about Cremona’s claims, she told MaltaToday that it would not be right for the PD’s currently temporary executive to develop policies that could tie the hands of officials who will be elected at the party’s upcoming annual general meeting.

“The party’s basic principles are clear – we believe in social justice, good governance, transparency, meritocracy, accountability, and environmental protection,” she said. “After the AGM, we’ll have a permanent team and start developing policies. It would not have made sense for a temporary executive to develop policies.” 

She added that she doesn’t want the PD’s policies to be piecemeal ones based on her own personal opinions, but rather long-terms ones developed following extensive consultation. 

While Cremona recognized Farrugia’s arguments as “valid”, he maintained that the PD should at least have used its interim period to “lay the groundwork for policy development”. 

The Partit Demokratiku was launched last June, describing itself as a group of people “who are answering the country’s call against tribalism and the traditional parties”. 

Apart from Farrugia and Cremona, the party’s temporary executive also included Anthony Buttigieg, Duncan Bonnici and Monique Agius. MaltaToday’s most recent survey in September placed them at 1.5 percentage points nationally.

Cremona said that he had sent his resignation letter to Farrugia two months ago, but had kept his decision under wraps “out of respect for the party”. However, he decided to go public in a Facebook status last week, following a Sunday Times story that the PD are in negotiations with the PN to form a united opposition to the Labour government. 

“People had started asking me questions, and I just wanted to clear the air that I no longer had anything to do with the PD,” he said, while insisting that his decision to resign was in no way linked to the party’s embrace of the PN.   

However, he said that the title of the article in question – PN and Marlene Farrugia discuss joining forces – reflected existential problems within the PD that he had wanted to iron out. 

“The impression is that she, and not the party, is negotiating with the PN. I am not saying that Farrugia was a dictatorial leader or that she ignored other people’s opinions, far from it, and of course the fact that she was the only MP in the committee did lend her words some extra weight,” Cremona said. “However, I still wanted the PD to develop its own identity separate to that of Farrugia, so that it would be able to survive if she were to leave it some day in the future.

“It may sound strange to some people, but I believe that a party should be able to take stances that differ to its leader’s personal opinions.”

He laughed off a question on whether he thought he would have made a better leader than Marlene Farrugia, adding that he didn’t have the time, experience or ambition to lead a political party. 

“I was very comfortable being in a supporting role until I saw that the party wasn’t developing as I was expecting it to.”