Prime Minister wants clear vote of confidence with no conditions

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi attempted to present an image of aloofness from the predicament he is facing inside the government backbench, insisting on PBS's Dissett tonight that his main concerns are still the creation of jobs and attracting investment to Malta, and not the media's fixation with his political troubles.

Interviewer Reno Bugeja pointed out the prime minister's apparent 'uncertainty' over tomorrow's vote of confidence, which Lawrence Gonzi has called in a rebuttal of the Labour motion that led to Carm Mifsud Bonnici's resignation as minister after Nationalist backbencher Franco Debono voted in favour of the motion.

"I cannot say I am sure about it... I have no reason to think otherwise. But the result will be known at the final vote."

The prime minister did not give any clear indication whether he would call early elections Monday, if his entire one-seat majority does not back him leading to his confidence motion passing with the Speaker's casting vote.

"Whichever way it passes, it must be a clear vote. Tomorrow I want a clear vote for government without any conditions," Gonzi said, reiterating the same sentiment he had expressed prior to the last vote of confidence held in January.

So far Nationalist MP Franco Debono has claimed he will not be voting against the government on Monday.

Gonzi was evasive when asked why - as he had declared in the House during the motion of censure against Austin Gatt, when Franco Debono's vote could also not be counted on - he did not turn the motion of resignation against Mifsud Bonnici in one of collective responsibility, or a motion of confidence against the government.

Prevaricating, Gonzi insisted his vote of confidence on Monday spoke for itself, before Bugeja aired a sound-clip of the prime minister telling the House the vote against Austin Gatt was one of collective responsibility - Debono later abstained on this vote.

"This is just a hypothesis," Gonzi said, insisting his confidence motion was an apposite rebuttal to Labour's resignation motion. "To me this sort of reasoning is just Joseph Muscat's way of devaluing politics, and I'm fighting back, democratically, with a vote of confidence."

Gonzi then skirted Bugeja's explicit suggestion that Labour's resignation motion, as the censure motion against Austin Gatt had been, was only possible due to the possibility of Franco Debono voting in their favour. "The people in the street know that this motion was only possible due to the chances of Debono voting for it, prime minister," Bugeja said.

"It was classic opportunism... the pits of politics, and I want to raise our politics to the standard it merits," Gonzi replied, careful to keep up the pressure on Labour, without passing judgement on Franco Debono.

Gonzi was unrelenting in dissecting Labour's "dangerous" policies on justice and home affairs, and said the Opposition had been unable to muster one decent proposal. "They've been negative on energy, negative on immigration... and this scandalous motion is one motion Labour must take responsibility for."

"We got good results for this country in the last four years and a half. Unnecessary as much as this political turmoil is... we made our budgets, created new jobs, introduced new initiatives, and continued with our work. Getting such results while other countries are in an economic storm, is a credit to this government and exposes the falsity behind Labour's motions."

Bringing the prime minister off his criticism of Labour to answer to questions about his political stalemate, Bugeja pointed out that Gonzi's troubles had not subsided since the last vote of confidence and the one-horse leadership race he ran to confirm his authority inside the PN.

"Today I can say I have the entire Nationalist party are behind me," Gonzi replied. "We do have our internal debates in the PN, and it makes it more challenging for me. But I reiterate that if I still managed to gain good economic results, then it confirms the success of our electoral programme."

So why not go for elections now if the economic results are good, Bugeja asked.

"That would be the easy way out. I'm not for the easy way out... we were elected for a five-year legislature. And that's what we'll do.

"Muscat wants to be the youngest prime minister in the history of Malta," Gonzi told Bugeja, who pointed out the historical inaccuracy. "I want to lead this country and overcome the challenges it faces, and our first interest is the country, not the party. And that is to keep leading this country."

The prime minister categorically denied having offered Debono the position of Leader of the House, which was occupied by Mifsud Bonnici, the latter having informed the House on Wednesday morning that he would step down from the parliamentary position if the resignation motion did not pass.

Gonzi revealed that Debono failed to make a meeting with him last Monday, and contacts ensued through a government interlocutor on the eve of the motion. "Our contacts were messages to Franco not to vote against the minister... his demands were that he wanted his motion [on justice and home affairs] to be debated... and it will be debated, but that depends on the House's agenda, and whether the confidence motion passes."

Throughout the year, Mifsud Bonnici had come under severe criticism from the Opposition of filibustering and delaying the motion of censure debating his record as justice and home affairs minister, when he was Leader of the House.

Gonzi recognised that the nature of this criticism required that deputy prime minister Tonio Borg also attend the meetings of the House Business Committee. But he refuted suggestions that appointing Mifsud Bonnici had been an error of judgement, given the motions concerning the justice and home affairs portfolio had already been tabled back in January.

Bugeja was merciless when he quetioned the prime minister's choice to take home affairs under his wing: airing a clip from a previous interview in which Gonzi insisted his cabinet reshuffle in January allowed him to focus solely on the eurozone's troubles, he was asked how he could now accept to take such a large ministry, which also includes immigration.

"I started this legislature with a small Cabinet. The model worked, and the results are there. They were economic, creating 20,000 new jobs and saving 5,000... I did have internal tension, but was this tension more important than these results? No."

There was little time for an answer, as Bugeja pointed out that this was the fourth time in the interview that he had boasted of his job creation record. "It's starting to sound like an advertisement, Prime Minister."

"Who gets to be prime minister," Gonzi replied, "gets to say that his policies reaped the results he earned."