Updated | ‘I will vote against Debono running on PN ticket’ – Beppe Fenech Adami

Updated at 13:45pm with Franco Debono's reaction.

Nationalist backbencher Beppe Fenech Adami would have called backbencher Franco Debono's bluff at an earlier stage than Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, the MP said in an interview in which he declared he won't support Debono's candidature for the 2013 elections.

The influential MP, son of former Prime Minister and President emeritus Eddie Fenech Adami, has taken a stance that is a clear indication that the PN's executive - which groups the administration with the parliamentary group - is bound to turn down Franco Debono's candidature on the PN ticket.

In an interview published on the official blog of radio host Andrew Azzopardi, Fenech Adami said he would have curbed Debono's rebellion much sooner than before, had he been party leader.

"If I were Prime Minister I would have put the brakes on Franco Debono at an earlier stage as soon as he started his pantomime in parliament."

But Fenech Adami recognised that as Prime Minister, Gonzi has had to see things from a "wider perspective".

Asked how he would vote if Debono presents his candidature for the next general election to the party's executive, Fenech Adami was categorical.

"The moment Debono voted with Labour to decapitate a member of our group, he crossed a red line. If Debono dares to present a request to stand as PN candidate, I will vote against it."

In the interview Fenech Adami described Gonzi as an excellent leader and also insisted that unity in the parliamentary group did not depend solely on the party leader.  "With the exception of Franco Debono and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, I do not recall differences which prevented the parliamentary group from functioning."

Beppe Fenech Adami refused to speculate on future leadership ambitions, which he did not rule out. "I don't like speculating on where my political life will take me. I believe in politics one must climb up the ladder one rung at a time. Humbly, I'd dare say I have climbed several rungs already."

On his part, Debono has hit out at Fenech Adami's comments, saying the MP is trying to create new problems that are not in the interest of the party.

"When the chapter had been closed and I had declared I was going to support the government, Fenech Adami is trying to create new problems. This is not in the interest of the party," Debono told MaltaToday. "They are not conciliatory comments like those of Mario de Marco, Chris Said, David Agius, Edwin Vassallo or Francis Zammit Dimech who said the door would still be open."

Debono also said that he never paid much attention to stories printed in union daily l-Orizzont, which claimed Fenech Adami was behind a party effort to have Marsaxlokk candidate Hermann Schiavone outshine Debono in time for the next elections.

"If this was being done to foment unrest against a standing MP, then I'm starting to question whether Fenech Adami was indeed behind this effort, and I would think that he deserves the party's condemnation for such. Is he doing it because he has some leadership aspirations? Because if it's that how it is, he surely hasn't got the slightest chance of being leader. That's why he's angry. He's jealous of my first-count vote, which I got without the help of my dad."

Franco Debono's stand in parliament to vote with the Opposition to force the resignation of home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici has already been severely lambasted by Fenech Adami. "Franco Debono has burnt all bridges with the Nationalist Party," the MP had told MaltaToday. "He has seriously jeopardised his position and has shown that he cannot work in a team."