PN on warpath with Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando
Party issues ‘categorical denial’ from 33 MPs declaring they never intended voting for Cachia Caruana's resignation - Franco Debono included.
Updated at 8:12pm with Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando's reaction.
Less than 24 hours after issuing a public condemnation for voting in favour of an Opposition motion, the PN has challenged Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando to declare which MPs he was referring to in his parliamentary speech Monday "who wanted to vote in favour" of the resignation of Richard Cachia Caruana.
A statement from the Nationalist party's communication office has further upped the ante against the MP, whose vote in favour of the Labour motion led to the resignation of Cachia Caruana from permanent representative to the EU.
On Monday Pullicino Orlando claimed there were "at least 10 MPs on the government side who wished to vote" in favour of the Opposition motion, which accused Cachia Caruana of authoring the reactivation of Malta's participation in Nato's Partnership for Peace with a view to bypass the need for parliamentary approval.
Pullicino Orlando said: "I can say publicly that, from a number of discussions held with my colleagues - whom I won't mention because these were private discussions - there are here at least 10 MPs who want to vote for this motion."
The PN issued a statement following its parliamentary group meeting Thursday evening, listing all the names of its MPs - except for Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett - saying it had a "clear declaration" by all 33 MPs that "they never spoke to Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando" and called on the MP to substantiate his claims.
The list includes Franco Debono, who was condemned by the PN's executive committee for voting in favour of an Opposition motion that resulted in the resignation for former minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici. Debono has publicly berated Cachia Caruana in his own speeches in parliament, taking the permanent representative to task for being part of an oligarchy and mocking his St Edward's College pedigree.
Debono had said Cachia Caruana did not deserve a vote of no confidence, after having used several occasions during his parliamentary speeches to attack Cachia Caruana, claiming he "acted in the shadows" and that he was "obsessed with power".
Debono also said he will be asking the PN's executive committee to nullify the decision to condemn his vote in favour of an Opposition motion that led to the resignation of home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.
The PN said it had in its hands declarations from the 33 MPs "categorically denying" they ever had any intention or desire to vote in favour of the Opposition's motion for resignation.
In a reaction, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando stood by his claims that he had held a number of exchanges with MPs, and that he would not divulge their names. "I am keeping to my word that these exchanges will remain personal, even though I still have their SMSes in my possession of what they told me [about the motion]."