Debono does not declare 9 May vote: ‘much can happen until then’

Nationalist MP Franco Debono has reacted to Prime Minister's Lawrence Gonzi decision to go for a crucial vote on a money bill by accusing him of "cowardice" by not taking him up on a challenge for a public debate.

As Gonzi informed MPs yesterday in a parliamentary group meeting that he would call Debono's bluff and go for the vote on the Budgetary Measures Implementation Bill - a vote that requires the full support of his one-seat majority - Debono told MaltaToday he wanted to take the prime minister and his entire cabinet head-on in a public debate.

Gonzi gave Debono's proposal short shrift, having set 9 May as the day of truth for his government, which needs to survive the money bill to keep on governing. "This is not about public debates or challenges. Any such business must take place within parliament," Gonzi said.

Debono - who did not attend the meeting, dubbing it a "farce" - told Gonzi on Monday evening 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.

Yesterday evening, Debono insisted with MaltaToday that it was the MP who called Gonzi's bluff when he challenged him to the debate. "And he refused ... this is just cowardice," he said.

Instead of declaring his stand on the budget measures bill (Debono yesterday said Gonzi should resign), the MP said that much could happen in the time before the House votes on the bill, stopping short of going into detail of what could happen.

"Gonzi should know by now that I am always one step ahead of him. I always know what he is going to do," he added.

He said the parliamentary group meeting had been fixed days ago, and that the 9 May date had been decided by the Cabinet. "I had already received an SMS from [Whip] David Agius to keep 9 May free. The impression they try to give that the parliamentary group is involved in any decision-making is false. The meetings are just an information session," he said.

Debono also hinted at the prospect that other motions might be discussed and voted upon before that date. One of these would be a motion of adjournment presented by the Opposition - or Debono himself - which would force the justice and home affairs motion to be discussed before the vote.

Debono also said that Gonzi was "not entitled" to use the words 'urgent' or 'priorities' in his comments to the press on the parliament's upcoming agenda. "Is it now that he sees the Budget Bill as urgent? After a four-week recess and three months without taking any votes?" Debono said.

The MP was not short on comparisons, saying the prime minister's "cruelty" was causing the same damage on the political class as that wreaked upon the Church by his uncle, the Archbishop Michael Gonzi whose 1961 Lenten Pastoral led to the excommunication of Labourites.

"Gonzi's gross arrogance and cruelty is not fooling anybody. Everyone is asking what the Prime Minister is up to with all this maneuvering... He just doesn't want to discuss the justice motion because he doesn't want to see any minister who did wrong resign," Debono said of the Opposition's motion that takes home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici to task.