Mifsud Bonnici resigns, Gonzi calls confidence vote, Franco Debono: 'I will not vote against government'

Additional reporting by Jurgen Balzan.

Updated with Joseph Muscat's statement to the press at 8:17pm | Lawrence Gonzi's statement to the press at 8:37pm | Comments from Franco Debono at 9:16pm.

Home Affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici has tendered his resignation after government failed to muster the support necessary to defeat an Opposition motion of no confidence against the minister.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has now tabled a motion of confidence in the government, to be debated on Monday. "I feel the vote has political consequences, and that in the circumstances I have to register whether I have a majority in favour of this government, even though I feel the first vote of confidence that passed this year still stands," Gonzi said.

Notably absent for Gonzi's press conference were MPs Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett, whom Gonzi said had been contacted telephonically to stay for the press conference.

Gonzi reiterated his defence of Mifsud Bonnici but claimed he was not surprised by Franco Debono's vote in favour of the Opposition motion. "I have to thank Mifsud Bonnici for his service to tthenation," Gonzi said to the acclaim of his government MPs.

Asked whether Debono had any future in the party, Gonzi said that any MP must shoulder the consequences of their actions. "It's not whether any MP has a future or not... everyone, Debono too, must take responsibility for their actions."

In comments to The Times, Debono said he will not vote against the government in the confidence vote on Monday or the censure motion against Richard Cachia Caruana. "I will surely not vote against the government in both of them" he said. "I am a firm Nationalist but I had no alternative today in view of the minister's shortcomings in the running of the ministry."

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has now taken responsibility for the home affairs and local councils portfolio, while deputy prime minister Tonio Borg is now Leader of the House.

Nationalist MP Franco Debono caught his harshest critics and government and Opposition alike by surprise, when he voted in favour of the Opposition's motion calling for the resignation of home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici, in a move that was much expected over the past week of parliamentary debate.

Opposition leader Joseph Muscat said in a press conference after the vote that the Prime Minister had unequivocally lost two votes, the motion proper and an amendment, and said Lawrence Gonzi could not waste any more time in removing the uncertainty that had gripped his one-seat majority.

"Today's vote shows that the prime minister's earlier vote of confidence this year did not confirm the stability of his majority... government MPs this week described this vote as a vote of confidence in the government. So it is now up to the Prime Minister to see what action he will take," Muscat said.

"The wording of the motion is clear. There are serious political repurcussions and issues over the political instability of this government. Today we are witnessing the implosion of this system. The prime minister must choose whether to put the national interest first or keep plodding in this manner."

Muscat said the Prime Minister had to decide what to do before the summer recess.

Government MPs have been asked to stay in the House for a press conference from the Prime Minister, who today was accompanied by his chief of staff Edgar Galea-Curmi.

While earlier in the day Debono was believed he would abstain on the motion, as expressed privately by government MPs with this newspaper, the MP's 'change of heart' even caught senior Labour officials by surprise.

"We were not expecting it," a Labour party official told MaltaToday after the vote. "We were convinced he would not support it."

Tonight's vote brought to a close over five months of speculation over Franco Debono's intentions to vote against the government side, after having broken ranks in January when the justice and home affairs ministry was split - something he had long demanded from the Prime Minister.

The rebel backbencher had been building expectation for weeks in the run-up to the motion that called for the resignation of one of his main targets of criticism.

But the huge anti-climax never came, leaving even the media's keenest of observers flummoxed at Debono's decision to finally vote against the government he had been criticising for ages.

The fact that the motion of censure was amended to explicitly call for Mifsud Bonnici's resignation, and the increasing overtures from government MPs who said a vote against the minister was 'a vote against government', seemed to indicate the chances that Debono would vote in favour of the motion were diminishing considerably over the last week.

One former Nationalist minister told MaltaToday before the evening session: "We know this guy's going to abstain."

It was this sensation, gathered from the Nationalist bench on Tuesday evening as it sniggered throughout Franco Debono's address to the House, peppered with quips, that seemed to pervade the relaxed government bench.

But Debono could not resist from adding to the suspense this evening by going over to the Opposition's bench as soon as he walked in the House on Wednesday evening - with his jacket in hand - to share a quick word with shadow home affairs minister Michael Falzon, a co-signatory of the resignation motion.

Proceedings of evening session

Mifsud Bonnici had been the first to address the House this evening, continuing from the morning's address. The home affairs minister recounted the work he carried out in the past four years and defended his record in "working hard to combat illegal immigration."

"I have worked hard. I have done so not for some personal glory but out of a sense of duty towards the Maltese people. I thank everyone," a serene but tired-looking Mifsud Bonnici told the House.

"I thank everyone who have worked with me. In this sector, there is never an easy day. Every day brings new challenges. I worry when a day comes to the end without facing serious difficulties. This is what a home affairs minister goes through every day."

Taking the floor soon afterwards, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi hailed Mifsud Bonnici's work.

"Labour is trying to defend a motion that is indefensible. Nobody is perfect and that includes Mifsud Bonnici and myself. However the judgement on our performance must be objective," Gonzi told the House, insisting that the home affairs minister deserved the full confidence of the whole of parliament.

"We do not say so because we pity him or because he is a friend but because he has worked hard."

Gonzi also levelled much criticism against the Opposition, reminding the other side of what had gone on in justice and home affairs under a Labour administration during the 1980s.