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Franco Debono mulls new party for elections
Franco Debono is seriously considering founding a new political party and contest the 9 March election.
24 December 2012, 12:00am
Jurgen Balzan
Jurgen Balzan
4 min read
Debono said a significant number of voters who have no intention of voting because they are fed up with the state of affairs in the PN and would never get themselves to vote Labour.
Nationalist MP Franco Debono is considering running in the next general elections on the ticket of a new party that he will form.
Speaking to MaltaToday, the dissenting MP whose vote against the 2013 Budget on 10 December brought government down, said that a segment of the Maltese electorate was yearning for a new alternative to the two main parties.
"I have received hundreds of messages, mostly from Nationalists encouraging me to contest elections and at the moment I am in listening mode," Debono said.
Asked in which way he'll be contesting elections if he decides to do so, Debono ruled out contesting elections on the Labour Party ticket or as an independent.
Debono's exploits in recent months have earned him an official rebuke by the Nationalist Party. The MP was consequently banned, together with fellow PN backbenchers Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett, from contesting elections as a PN candidate after voting against the government whip's directives.
In comments to MaltaToday, Debono denied carrying out home visits in recent days, stressing that at the moment he is in "listening mode".
The MP said that over the last few days he has received hundreds of SMSes, emails and private messages on Facebook, following his blog post in which he appealed to his readers to get in touch with him if they are "fed up" with the current political situation.
"Following the blog post I wrote in a flash of anger at the way I was treated by PBS and Where's Everybody, I received hundreds of messages. I must admit I was overwhelmed by the response, and most of the persons who got in touch are Nationalists."
Debono went on to explain that his only option is to contest elections with a new party because "contesting as an independent makes no sense and as I have already stated, I will never contest with Labour."
He pointed out that he would never contest with Labour because of "ideological reasons".
"As a centrist I would never contest elections as a Labour candidate because I never was a left-winger," Debono said.
Additionally, the MP noted that if he ever wanted to contest elections with Labour he would have done so a long time ago. "Coming from a Labour stronghold (Ghaxaq) I could have easily contested elections with Labour in 1998. However I always chose to contest on a PN ticket, even after contesting unsuccessfully in 1998 and 2003. Therefore any insinuations on contesting elections with Labour are plain stupid."
The only option left for Debono would be creating a new political party and the MP sounds like he is considering this option seriously.
"I have been in touch with a number of professionals which have shown a willingness to support me and join me. We share common concerns and we all agree that there is space for a new party, especially in the light of Malta being the only country in the whole of Europe with only two parties in Parliament."
According to Debono, the segment of the electorate which is yearning for such a change is chiefly Nationalist.
"A large number of voters who only vote Nationalist because their only other option would be not voting at all. There is a significant number of voters who have no intention of voting because they are fed up with the state of affairs in the PN and would never get themselves to vote Labour.
"Normally these people fall back in the fold in the last minute and vote PN. However, I am receiving a lot of support and encouragement from these kind of persons."
He added that the same applies to a number of people who vote for Alternattiva Demokratika, who only vote Green to avoid not voting at all. "I think a number of these voters could also be swayed by a new party with credible aspirations to break the stranglehold the two main parties have on our democracy."
A new political entity headed by Debono would not attract any Labour supporters, because Debono believes that traditionally 'red' voters who have been waiting for their party to be in government for the best part of 25 years "will rush to the polling booth at 7am and one day later they will be lining up expecting favours from the party".
He adds that another segment of the electorate which normally votes PN has already made a decision to vote Labour, mostly because of the way the country has been governed. However he also noted that there is a lot of resentment directed towards Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.
Refusing to reveal the locality, Debono claimed that during a recent visit Gonzi made to a PN club, Nationalist supporters "were heard badmouthing their own leader" while Gonzi was in the club.
Jurgen Balzan was a MaltaToday reported from 2011 to 2017.
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about time Franco, come on lets prove to both parties that the power is not only in their hands, you have not only mine but a thoudsand more!!
AVIVA MALTA FOR A FULL DEMOCRACY
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"As a centrist I would never contest elections as a Labour candidate because I never was a left-winger," Debono said.........FRANCO NISSUGGERILEK LI TMUR L-ITALJA U TIKKONTESTA MAL PARTIT TA MARIO MONTI.
Luke Camilleri •
That will give him some air time... possible at least as much as AD seem to be getting with no Parliameent ary seats!
But that's only in Malta and PBS' Agenda who consider , Dr. Franco Debono, like Lawrence Gonzi & Simon Busuttil "IRRELEVANT" !
Luke Camilleri •
That will give him some air time... possible at least as much as AD seem to be getting with no Parliameent ary seats!
But that's only in Malta and PBS' Agenda who consider , Dr. Franco Debono, like Lawrence Gonzi & Simon Busuttil "IRRELEVANT" !
Luke Camilleri •
That will give him some air time... possible at least as much as AD seem to be getting with no Parliameent ary seats!
But that's only in Malta and PBS' Agenda who consider , Dr. Franco Debono, like Lawrence Gonzi & Simon Busuttil "IRRELEVANT" !
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PN was and is failing and most candidates know this, hoping to reduce losses in the next election and at least to survive and proceed with a reforming process.
Alternativa failed and so will Franco if a new party is formed.
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PN was and is failing and most candidates know this, hoping to reduce losses in the next election and at least to survive and proceed with a reforming process.
Alternativa failed and so will Franco if a new party is formed.
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Franco my hero, please don't give up on us.Create a new party ,teach them a lesson so they learn how to respect everyone.You have super brain, just don't mind dose once that they refuse to understand you.
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franco is a lost asset for the pn. when one studies simon busutil one finds out that he an inflated entity like gonzi was before. gonzi turned up to be a very weak leader. he told austin gatt to resign in front of the whole nation at m'xlokk but gatt ignored him completely. simon won the debate because anglu was a mess (everyone who knows anglu knows that although he is a very serious politicians he is rather camera shy).as a floating voter simon's comments regarding the resihnations of gatt and fenech made me look elsewhere. so my choice is either pl (especially for dr muscat boldness and franco for his courage and fairness) probably my vote will be divided between these two young politicians
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dr debono qatt ma ktiebt fil blog tieghak imma ilni insegwi mil bidu nammerak u nixtieqlek kull success bis jiena ma nistax nivvutalek ghax nixtieq nivvota lil pl il milied it tajjeb
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ta' patpitu li hu franco debono irid ipacpac fuq il-partit laburista ..... tghidulix li dan mhux persuna tad-dahk tafux ......... fuq gonzipn ghandu kull dritt li jitkellem u jghidilna kif jahsibha dwar gonzipn u l-klikka li hemm tgawdi u thawwel madwaru ... imma fuq il-partit laburista franco debono ma ghandu ebda dritt jitkellem u jpacpac fil-vojt ..... hu qatt ma mmilita fil-partit laburista u HADD QATT MA TALBU JIMMILITA FIL-PARTIT LABURISTA U ALLURA META JPACPAC FUQ IL-LABOUR IKUN QED IPARLA FIL-VOJT GHAX HADD MA JAGHTI KASU. FUQ GONZIPN GHANDU DRITT JIFTHILHA KEMM IRID ... imma fuq il-labour party, ikun ahjar li jaghlaq halqu ghax zgur li mhux kompitu tieghu li jitkellem .....
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It is about time that Malta once again finds its conscience and its courage to introduce a third party for its general election.
Franco Debono is probably a pompous, condescending, bad-tempered prat, but that doesn’t give the PN or the PL the right to destroy his political career.
The way the constitution had been amended by the two main political parties, it is designed to discriminate against a third party being on equal footing.
Unless a third party has the audacity to elect its member on a first ballot, all the votes cast become irrelevant. This misfortune was explicitly highlighted in the last election when the PN popular votes which were less than the AD popular votes elected 4 members of parliament while the AD votes were considered irrelevant and discarded in the trash can.
To add insult to injury, these were the same PN popular votes that were already counted to elect members through an inheritance system that is as outdated as Malta’s Constitution.
To achieve the equal footing required, the Maltese Constitution must eliminate the disparity between the parties through the popular votes. This lame idea plays into the hands of the old order in order to keep a new democracy from establishing its foundations. Let us not forget that it was the old PN that boycotted parliament because the MLP has won the majority of seats but acquired fewer popular votes.
In Western democracies, this occurrence is never questioned, yet the old Maltese order in opposition with its right wing alliance and its Christian dogma saw fit to convince the government of the day that they wanted democracy played that would be beneficial only to the two main parties and to ensure that third party popular votes cannot impede the witless amendment in the constitution that awarded the necessary seats to form a government.
In other words this corrupt and dishonest amendment ridiculed the Maltese Constitution that clearly states that the Maltese Parliament is to consist of 65 members of parliament.
Elections the world over are contested over what party whether there are two, three or four has the ability to win the majority of seats to form a government. The dishonest doctrine that the popular vote should award extra seats is revolting, as popular votes are always changing from one election to another and the distribution is always unequal due to the population movements towards different districts.
Franco Debono should be encouraged to continue in his profession as a Maltese politician who has found the balls to undo, the evil that has grasped and governed over the last quarter century.
Franco Debono is trying to make the Maltese understand how utterly moronic this amendment in the constitution that demoted democratic members of parliament elected to become irrelevant in protecting the right of the individual and embraces a government and an administration illegally elected and duty bound to award the cabals and the oligarchs that keep it in power. They in turn while managing the Maltese economy and gaining full access to every government contract without any competition, shoulder the burden to finance the administration to retain power by donating back a percentage of their contracts and intimidate their workers to ensure that all of them vote according to their instructions.
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Debono's idea is logical; while prevented to run on the PN ticket, he will not be accepted by Labour, for obvious reasons. Debono is a one man team and nobody wants such a character in his fold. He has finally realised that running as independent will not get him elected. AD will not dream of accepting him in his fold. So the only option for him is to form a party. But again, no party succeeds in getting a candidate elected unless that party has enough candidates to contest in all districts, If Debono manages to get say half-a-dozen candidates in his party, it won't be enough to ensure that at least one candidate will be elected. His party will only have a nuisance value; simply robbing votes from disgruntled nationalists which could be enough to enable Labour to win the elections.
Maureen Attard •
Dr. Debono. toqghodx fuq li qed jghidulhekk jew fuq li qed jiktbulek, ghax min qed jghaddilek dawn is-suggerimenti jew hu laburist biex jipprova jtellef il-voti lil PN, jew inkella nazzjonalisti li taparsi qed jappogjawk u wara johorguk ta' mazzetta. Oqghod attent, inti avukat u suppost li taf aktar minni li jien ma jien xejn.
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Rather then work for reform from within a firm platform, he choose to burn his bridges. None of the two major parties will trust him so if he wants to stay in politics he has no option but to form a party of his own. Of course with the anticipated Labour victory , if elected, Debono will have to sit along with his ex colleagues on the opposition benches and as he won't have the power of a casting vote he will just fade into frustrated oblivion.
Poor chap should have put his brain into gear before driving off at a tangent.
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Rather then work for reform from within a firm platform, he choose to burn his bridges. None of the two major parties will trust him so if he wants to stay in politics he has no option but to form a party of his own. Of course with the anticipated Labour victory , if elected, Debono will have to sit along with his ex colleagues on the opposition benches and as he won't have the power of a casting vote he will just fade into frustrated oblivion.
Poor chap should have put his brain into gear before driving off at a tangent.
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I wish Dr Franco Debono all the BESt for Xmas and the New Year, while wishing him success at the next General Election. Although I am not one of his ex party followers, if he has a candidate on the 10th District, he will get my vote. Eith Dr Debono's insistance there was improvements for one and all.
Good Luck Dr Debono.
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Dr.Franco Debono, La wasalt sa ghawn, x`ghandek x`titlef? Jekk ma titlax fil parlament mhux ser taqa id dinja, u jekk titla inkunu nistaw nghejdu li ta l-anqas ghandha politikant sura...ghax 90 % li hemm ifaqssu il bajd jonqoshom.
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go for it franco.You are a leader.Get Ninu Zammit with you and run in your district, you will be elected.Go for it.Good luck and happy Christmas to you and your family
