Gonzi summons PN parliamentary group after Debono ups ante on justice motion

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has summoned the Nationalist Party's parliamentary group to meet this afternoon in the wake of troublesome developments within his one-seat majority,after he was confronted by backbencher Franco Debono, when he approached him in the House and informed him that he was not ready to accept a parliamentary vote on the Budget Measures Implementation Bill unless the Opposition's justice and home affairs motion was not debated before. 

After finishing his conversation with the Prime Minister, Debono crossed the chamber of the House to speak to Opposition leader Joseph Muscat.

As he left the House he was heard telling the Prime Minister: "Sahha, Sur Prim Ministru!"

The PN parliamentary group is reported to have been summoned for 4pm. 

When contacted Debono said he had only talked to, and not argued with, the Prime Minister. He said he reiterated his position with Gonzi - "that a government where no one assumes their responsibilities cannot operate properly".

"It is unacceptable for a minister (Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici) with a motion of censure on his head, to be in parliament and proposing amendments to laws at the same time," Debono said.

Business before the House on Monday included readings of bills to amend the Criminal Code and various laws on criminal matters.

Debono added: "His [the Prime Minister's] stubbornness is incredible".

He said that the Prime Minister "must realise that delaying tactics are not fooling anyone".

Asked whether the Prime Minister had agreed to move the motion before the Budget Bill vote, Debono said he didn't know what he [Gonzi] was going to do.

"However I'm going to do everything in my power to see that the motion is discussed first. If need be I'll even present a motion myself. But things cannot go on like this," he insisted.

PN backbencher Franco Debono's consistent criticism has led the Prime Minister and the Leader of the House, Carm Mifsud Bonnici, to avoid calling for votes on crucial resolutions or bills that could weaken government's fragile one-seat majority.

The justice and home affairs motion was presented in December by justice and home affairs shadow ministers José Herrera and Michael Falzon. The motion was presented before Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi held a Cabinet re-shuffle and split the justice ministry from home affairs on 6 January - a move that started the internal rupture inside the PN when Franco Debono's support started wavering.

The separation between justice and home affairs was one of Nationalist MP Franco Debono's main concerns, which eventially led to the Opposition's motion of no-confidence, which government survived in spite of Debono's abstention. Gonzi's reshuffle meant that the justice and home affairs portfolios held by Carm Mifsud Bonnici since 2008 were split. Mifsud Bonnici held on to home affairs whilst Chris Said became minister of justice and social policy.

Herrera and Falzon's motion presented in December, demanded that political responsibility be assumed for 'endemic problems' in the sectors falling under the responsibility of the then Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs.