Franco Debono denies 'softening' of position on Gatt motion

In comments to MaltaToday, Franco Debono categorically denied any “softening” on his part, and stressed that “nothing has changed” in his intentions to abstain from voting with government and saving Austin Gatt from holding on to office by the Speaker’s casting vote.

Debono refused to talk about the outcome of last Monday’s PN executive council meeting, which was convened behind closed doors for a two-hour technical presentation by Gatt on how the transport reform unfolded.

Senior PN sources told this paper that Gatt repeated some six times to the PN executive committee that he was assuming political responsibility for the decisions taken by his ministry when planning the revised bus routes.

Although it was reported that Debono was quiet during Gatt’s presentation, the same sources added that the MP demanded from the minister an explanation as to why he had omitted any reference to the fact that €55 million were paid by government to buy back the licences from old bus owners, and didn’t use the former ATP’s (public transport association of bus owners) expertise in the formulation of the new routes that were to be used by Arriva.

“When Franco Debono asked Gatt how much was paid out to bus owners, Austin Gatt didn’t have an answer...” the source said, adding that Debono then asked why was it that nobody within the ministry considered it fit to balance ATP’s advice with the overseas experts who knew nothing of Maltese village realities, where a direct bus route to Valletta is an essential part of Malta’s way of life.

Debono insisted that he did not want to talk about what was said during the party’s executive council meeting, but commented that he was “closely following the latest developments within the British House of Commons” referring to the current rebellion within government benches over a possible referendum on the European Union.

Last Sunday, Franco Debono stressed that he was to be government’s one man down when parliament is convened on November 4, to vote on the Opposition’s motion.

It was Debono who forced the PN to discuss the reasons for his abstention, saying that he was on the party’s side “not on Gatt’s” – adding that the minister should not continue to embarrass the party, government and country.

When asked to explain what he means when he says that Gatt “must assume his political responsibilities,” Debono said that political parties were "not band clubs, and don’t operate in a vacuum,” and that parties operate within a democratic system, where ministers are accountable to parliamen.

Franco Debono criticised what he described as the “whole attitude” to the reform which was wrong, and explained that “the main problem is not Arriva. This company has successful operations in various countries and employs some 50,000 people.”

The PN MP dismissed the suggestion that he is under some form of pressure to withdraw his threat as the Prime Minister may call a snap election given that he mathematically doesn’t have the parliamentary majority to back one of his leading ministers.

While Gonzi has so far neither taken a clear public stand on Austin Gatt, nor reacted to Debono’s abstention, the backbencher argues that should the threat of an election be there, "all the more reason for Austin Gatt to shoulder his political responsibility and do the right thing.”

This story is published today in MaltaToday Midweek.