Debono ‘will definitely not vote with Labour’, hints at abstention

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Nationalist MP Franco Debono has told MaltaToday he will not be voting with the Opposition on the motion calling for the resignation of Home Affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.

Debono was in conversation with Mediatoday managing editor Saviour Balzan, in the presence of two other witnesses, when he said he would not be voting with Labour on the motion. "Mifsud Bonnici said he has resigned as Leader of the House," Debono said.

When asked whether he will vote in favour of the motin, Debono said: "Do you think I'll be voting with them? You can quote me on this..."

After the story was published, Debono made three phone-calls to the MaltaToday newsroom insisting that he we will not be voting 'against' the government.

"I will not be voting against the Labour motion ," Debono later told MaltaToday in a phone-call to the newsroom offices. But when asked whether he will abstain, the MP replied: "You must wait and see until this evening."

Six months since he first started a long campaign of vocal criticism of Mifsud Bonnici's stewardship of the justice and home affairs portfolio, backbencher Franco Debono told MaltaToday that he “definitely will not” be voting with Labour on the motion.

The declaration comes hours before the House is called to vote tonight ay 7:30pm on a motion which calls for the resignation of Mifsud Bonnici after it was amended by the Opposition from its original motion of censure.

But the statement comes also as an anti-climax following Debono's months-long antics about justice and home affairs. Some weeks ago, shortly after one of his outbursts in Parliament, Debono crossed the floor and approached Opposition leader Joseph Muscat, telling him he would back a motion against the minister. He subsequently walked out of the House shouting: "goodbye Prime Minister."

Debono broke ranks with the government on 6 January, when Lawrence Gonzi's cabinet reshuffle led to the split of the justice and home affairs minister - long held to be one of Debono's more precious of demands for reform - but did not include Debono amongst his ministerial promotions. Debono threatened to withdraw support for the government, but later did not support a motion of no confidence against the government.

Taking the floor yesterday evening, Debono said: "If the minister ever felt that I have offended him I never had any intention to do so," referring to several speeches by government MPs that the motion was a personal attack against Mifsud Bonnici.

"I wish him the best of luck and good health. If I were him I would have left my wife at home as I know what it means. Members of my family are going through health problems too," Debono said, seeing Mifsud Bonnici's wife in attendance for each sitting of the week-long debate.

"I have been at the receiving end for disagreeing with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's leadership style. I was attacked by persons who have been awarded government contracts," Debono said, snidely adding that when Mifsud Bonnici was passing through health problems recently, he was not sure whether he was sick or not since Mifsud Bonnici kept on writing in newspapers.