Marathon sessions for no-confidence motion

The debate on the no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition will commence next Monday, but it will be a marathon sitting that could see each member of the House take the floor for an hour.

The Opposition yesterday withdrew a procedural motion to debate a no-confidence motion on Thursday for 180 minutes - with an hour and a half for each side of the House - and instead accepted to have the no-confidence motion debated in parliament next Monday.

The procedural motion originally called for the no-confidence motion to be discussed next Thursday between 9am and 12pm, and afterwards the vote would be taken.

However, Opposition whip Joe Mizzi insisted a time should be allocated for each speaker, while Leader of the House Carm Mifsud Bonnici said he was against imposing any time limits to the MPs during their speech.

Before the conclusion of yesterday's House Business Committee, Speaker Michael Frendo called on the whips of the two sides of the House to find "a way forward from where the Leader of the House left".

Nationalist backbencher Franco Debono, who is threatening to vote against the government in the no-confidence motion, said the government was only postponing its problems. "Procrastination has been the order of the day... But this is only postponing the problem," Debono said.

Labour deputy leader Anglu Farrugia told MaltaToday no agreement had been reached over the parliamentary agenda, adding that the procedural motion was still valid.

Farrugia insisted the Opposition had called for the committee to be suspended.

But in comments to MaltaToday, government whip David Agius said ultimately it is the Leader of the House who sets the agenda, and next Monday the debate on the motion would start.

In a reaction to this evening's meeting, the Nationalist Party said "the meeting confirmed government's will in discussing the no-confidence motion and according to the established rules."

The PN accused the Opposition of "arrogance" and said it tried to stop the debate by limiting the time for just 75 minutes for each side.

On the other hand, the Labour Party accused government of delaying tactics. The PL said the Opposition had offered for an agreement to be reached in which the necessary time would be given for the debate.

"But Lawrence Gonzi's government did not accept and did not want to reach an agreement on when the debate should end and the vote be taken," it said adding that "GonziPN was holding the country hostage with its internal party problems".

The PL accused government of irresponsibility and said its attitude this evening did not tally with comments made by the Prime Minister earlier this week: "The Prime Minister said he wanted to close off the issue this week. Now it is clear that he wants to hold on tight to power, while the country waits."

On Friday, Labour MP Anglu Farrugia presented a motion of no-confidence together with a procedural motion which set the day and time for the no-confidence motion to be discussed.

Mifsud Bonnici accused the Opposition of presenting a "guillotine" motion which did not give the MPs enough time to discuss the motion in Parliament.

Farrugia offered Mifsud Bonnici for both sides to discuss how long each MP should speak - "even for 40 hours if you want".

Mizzi also accused Mifsud Bonnici of filibustering over the time awarded to MPs to debate the motion, but called for a suspension of the sitting after Mifsud Bonnici said the no-confidence motion should be discussed on Monday.