The Prime Minister's nine lives... surviving, against all odds

It was a visibly tense and tired Lawrence Gonzi who braved the television cameras late on Friday night, and sought to diffuse the uncomfortable situation that had just unfolded in the House.

Backbencher Franco Debono had just abstained from voting with government, and ignored a party executive motion that called on all Nationalist MPs to vote against Labour’s no-confidence motion in Transport Minister Austin Gatt.

The Speaker’s casting vote may have saved Gatt by customary parliamentary procedure, but in truth, it was Gonzi who survived the battle by making it clear to the House that he as Prime Minister was shouldering the political responsibility for the transport reform fiasco together with all his Cabinet.

Intelligently or ingenuously, the Prime Minister’s controversial move to shift a clear case of individual responsibility into a collective one, has raised Gatt to indestructible status.

Speaking in parliament last Friday, Gatt was right to say that “he is proud to be strengthened by the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s backing to move on”.

It will be business as usual for Gatt tomorrow, who will return to his ministry to oversee his portfolio, but backed or not by Cabinet, he doesn’t enjoy the confidence of the House, given that he was saved by the Speaker’s casting vote.

But unlike our European partners, no-confidence votes are survived by the concerned ministers, let alone the Prime Minister.

When facing his first general election as PN leader in 2008, Lawrence Gonzi was confirmed in office with the slightest of majorities, a success which Gatt himself recently recognised as a feat in itself.

“Nobody would have bet that Lawrence Gonzi would have won the 2008 election... nobody!” he said in a recent interview.

Taking over government and the PN’s leadership from the historical figure of Eddie Fenech Adami was already a challenge for Gonzi in 2004, but he succeeded to pull a majority under the slogan of GonziPN, which however returned to haunt him and eventually led him to do away with the label to keep the party united.

Gonzi survived 2008 to become the first ever EU Prime Minister to make it after joining the eurozone, but the euphoria soon came to an abrupt end three months later, when the PN lost the European Parliament elections by some 25,000 votes, leaving Labour to sweep four out of six seats in Brussels.

The outcome of that election rocked the party to its core, with many questioning whether Gonzi was indeed in control.

He survived the criticism and belittlement by the Opposition’s onslaught that attributed its success at the polls to Joseph Muscat, its new leader.

Like any Prime Minister or party leader, Gonzi doesn’t like to lose… and matters only become worse if the losses start to be inflicted from within.

In December that same year, newly elected Franco Debono pulled his first shocker on Gonzi by deliberately not turning up for two parliamentary votes in protest at a number of pending issues.

As time helped the Prime Minister survive the humiliation and succeeded in quelling the dissent, he leaped into 2009 and subsequently 2010 which were rich in events that almost led to destabilising his and his government’s authority.

Divisions between the front and backbenches within the PN parliamentary group kept the Prime Minister distracted from his usual duties.

From the Delimara power station extension contract, to the spike in utility tariffs, the ARMS saga, Gonzi faced the mother of all battles: Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s private member’s bill calling for the introduction of divorce.

Lawrence Gonzi, who had just hosted Pope Benedict XVI in all pomp, lacked the foresight in finding a quick-fix and practical solution to what could have made his life much easier… even to this day.

Last Friday, Lawrence Gonzi defended himself, his government and Austin Gatt at once, perhaps forgetting that all remain consequentially bruised from the people’s unforgiving verdict in a referendum, which he wanted but opposed at the same time.

If Gonzi was a gladiator, he would have definitely been advised better, and he would not be led to face the lions unprotected, or at least while the lions were starved.

Debono’s abstention was long coming.

Behind the scenes of a shocked parliamentary group, many in truth knew that Debono was a loose cannon ready to fire.

The fiasco that accompanied the advent of Arriva as Malta’s public transport operator was the last straw.

Backed by widespread public anger at the confusion created by the ‘revised’ routes and coupled with the evident lack of preparation (as there were hardly enough buses and drivers to cover the routes), Gonzi was in for yet another stressful season.

While being kept busy with the unfolding events in Libya and the euro crisis, the Prime Minister somehow managed to appear unfazed by the growing frustration of hundreds of commuters.

Burdened with Libya and Europe, Gonzi was left to portray himself as careless in addressing the anger at home, to the extent that even children joked about ‘Arriva’.

Weeks of confusion granted the Labour Party its moment to shine, and hop onto the bandwagon, gaining support, while the transport ministry stubbornly showed no effort to resolve the crisis in the way all expected.

In between unwarranted comments by Gatt, who claimed to have “slept well” the night Labour presented its no-confidence motion, government appeared arrogant, until Debono fired his missile.

Gonzi no longer seemed to be distracted, and in a span of two days he had Gatt, Arriva and Transport Malta to sit around a table and figure out an urgent solution to the problem, but Debono remained adamant: Gatt must shoulder the political responsibility for the mess.

The PN parliamentary group had not met for months, and again it had to be Debono to instigate the Prime Minister and the PN to summon the party executive to discuss the situation. Until then, the PN seemed to be complacent and impotent to the realities that were unfolding.

While news bulletins were dominated by the emergency meetings in Brussels, Berlin and Paris in a bid to save the euro and Greece from falling into default, journalists in Malta were focused on the new internal battle the Prime Minister was fighting, this time over public transport.

The famously bullish transport minister was apologising and assuming political responsibility for the fiasco, but at the same time he was starting to enjoy the Prime Minister’s protection, leading Debono to dig in his heels.

Gonzi was yet again wrongly advised to summon the executive to deliver a motion that was set to impose on all party MPs to vote against Labour’s motion.

The motion was arguably unconstitutional given that the party, being an unregulated body under Maltese law, cannot oblige a democratically elected MP to vote as it dictates.

Surviving the blows as they came, with Debono’s frequent comments to the media, Lawrence Gonzi faced the day he wished he never woke up to.

Like Alfred Sant – his predecessor in Office – Gonzi had to endure the humiliation of listening to a 50-minute barrage of criticism that exposed the weakest links of his governance. People were glued to their radio sets or tuned in via the internet, as Debono fired salvo after salvo at the Prime Minister.

Gonzi looked defeated, belittled and humiliated, as an eerie silence fell in the House, with a packed stranger’s gallery questioning what was coming next.

The day proceeded with government MPs visibly resigned to the outcome of the result that was to come later.

While party whip David Agius impatiently walked up and down the chamber counting his MPs to ensure all were there, some – like deputy Speaker Censu Galea – were distracted to a point that they misplaced their spectacles while visiting the toilet.

When Debono remained seated while all government MPs stood up to vote against the Opposition’s motion, one could listen to the awe from government supporters in the stranger’s gallery.

“Oh my!...he did it!” one woman said, as another man seated just to her left let out a sigh in disbelief.

On the other hand, Labour supporters could be heard mumbling between them that the Prime Minister was about to call an election.

The vote was over in less than five minutes, and as Franco Debono dashed out of the Chamber and left the building, the majority of government MPs raced to the Prime Minister’s parliamentary office.

In the dimly lit corridors, all seemed to be shocked, and even Gatt, who emerged from the Prime Minister’s office, didn’t have much to say as he walked to his close aides who were waiting for him.

Gatt seemed relieved, but Foreign Minister Tonio Borg – who is also Leader of the House – came through from the opposite side looking somewhat perplexed, and approached the Prime Minister who had just come out of his office.

The two whispered to each other and walked together to face the media who were waiting impatiently for reactions.

Calling for a vote of confidence was all the Prime Minister could do, and it was in fact Debono who advised him to do so, as he assured him that his abstention was strictly concerning one minister.

But although Gonzi’s survival next Tuesday is taken as a fait accompli, he has yet to face Debono tomorrow, as the party has finally realised that it was time to summon the parliamentary group.

After Tuesday, Gonzi will have just a week to prepare for the Budget, which will also carry financial bills for the House to vote on (including the transport ministry) which are crucial for government.

But with a survival track-record of this sort, we can perhaps do like Gatt, and sleep well at night, as Teflon jackets are not only sold in Libya.