2015: How resignations coloured the year in politics

Three resignations in a year… what went right? It was an unusual high number in the typically iniquitous world of Maltese politics, which started the year in the shadow of the exit of two towering figures from public life: archbishop Paul Cremona and home affairs minister Manuel Mallia. Calls for the resignation of politicians is a daily occurrence, but in the space of 12 months we have had more resignations than in the previous decade.

Giovanna Debono

In March, MaltaToday revealed that Anthony Debono, husband of former minister for Gozo Giovanna Debono, coordinated and organised works for constituents in Gozo by using private contractors and asking them to invoice their works on sanctioned government projects.

Three Gozitan building contractors claimed that they were asked to carry out construction work for private residences or businesses during Debono’s tenure before the 2013 election.

Two months later Giovanna Debono announced her resignation from the PN just minutes after her husband Anthony was arraigned over charges of misappropriating €5,000 in public funds to commission private works for constituents.

Falling short of following her father’s footsteps, who in 1962 crossed the floor from Herbert Ganado’s Partito Democratico Nazionalista to the PN, Debono tendered her resignation from the party but kept her Parliamentary seat.

Denying all accusations of any wrongdoing, the former minister said she was resigning from the party she has represented since 1987. 

Following the 2013 election, Debono had said that she would not stand for re-election in 2018.

While Debono’s husband has pleaded not guilty to 13 charges in connection with the works for votes allegations, court proceedings are unlikely to be concluded before the next election, meaning the PN will sit the rest of the legislature with one MP less. 

While highlighting the difficulties faced by the PN in putting its recent past behind it, Debono’s inevitable resignation may be a blessing in disguise for Simon Busuttil’s party as it tries to break from the past and rejuvenate its ranks. 

Although it is early days, a recent MaltaToday survey on who people intend to vote for in Gozo showed the PN gaining two points compared to its 2013 performance, when for the first time ever Labour elected the majority of MPs in Gozo.

Joe Cassar

In November, shockwaves reverberated throughout the political landscape when former health minister Joe Cassar submitted his resignation from parliament, in the wake of accusations that he had accepted gifts from businessman Joe Gaffarena. 

Days earlier, MaltaToday had published documents showing that the Nationalist MP had not declared over €8,000 in house works paid for by property entrepreneur and party donor Joe Gaffarena while Cassar was in office. 

Facing accusations of having breached the ministerial code of ethics Cassar insisted that he was the victim of “character assassination” and in his resignation letter the psychiatrist said “if politics has been reduced to these levels, I’m not ready to be part of it.”

Cassar was rightly applauded for ‘doing the honourable thing’, especially as his exit was a welcome change for analogous cases in which embattled politicians cling to their positions despite facing similar accusations, at times far worse than the ones faced by Cassar. 

But while credit is due for bowing out with grace, it would be a mistake to extend the ‘honourable’ accolade to the behaviour which warranted Cassar’s resignation. He may have done the right thing, but his insistence on having been ‘framed’ was precipitous and uncalled for. 

Cassar very clearly violated the regulation which states that ministers should not accept “gifts or services such as might be deemed to create an obligation, real or imaginary.”  

One can argue at length as to whether, in the scale of human misdemeanours, this particular breach warranted a full resignation from Parliament but violation of these regulations should be considered a resignation matter: not just in Cassar’s case, but across the board.

Unlike Debono’s exit, Cassar’s resignation presented the PN with an immediate opportunity to rejuvenate its ranks, however due to internal politics and the antediluvian electoral system, the vacant Parliamentary seat was filled by a political dinosaur.

Following a casual election, former army minister Tony Abela, who once likened migration to the threat of a “tsunami”, took Cassar’s seat. Abela is best remembered for going live on Net TV during a fundraising marathon pulling out stacks of money notes out of his jacket pockets as donations to the party from undeclared donors.

Now that Abela has been re-elected to parliament at a time his party has raised the bar on standards by asking Cassar to step down for showing “an error of judgement” it is yet to be seen whether a higher standard of transparency and accountability is achieved by a battered political establishment. 

Marlene Farrugia

The most surprising resignation came from outspoken government backbencher Marlene Farrugia – a former PN candidate – who broke ranks with Labour, whom she joined in 2003.

Coming less than two weeks after Cassar’s resignation, Farrugia tendered hers to the prime minister, saying she was resigning from Labour, the parliamentary group, and as chairperson of the permanent committee for the environment and planning.

She resigned after voting with the Opposition on two amendments of the Environment Protection Act, which will set up one of the two authorities formerly merged into the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. Farrugia also supported calls by the Opposition for parliamentary scrutiny of the executive chairman, nominated by the government. After seeing the government plough ahead, Farrugia resigned on the spot and gave the Prime Minister a hand-written letter informing him of her decision to quit Labour. 

Holding on to her seat as an independent, will enhance her visibility – at least in the short-term – and will give a voice to voters and disgruntled switchers who are still wary of the PN, but dissatisfied with Labour on issues like meritocracy and the environment.

But on the other hand, her sudden resignation weakens her strength as a dissident voice within Labour and the government. As a Labour MP she was a thorn in Muscat’s side and as chair of the parliamentary environment and planning committee she gave a voice to the often sidelined civil society. 

But now, Muscat and his yes-men can steam roll over the internal party structures and the parliamentary group while civil society will once again be at the mercy of a loyalist Labour MP to voice their opinion in parliament. 

Who’s next?

2016 will undoubtedly gift us with new scandals but the fate of parliamentary secretaries Michael Falzon and Ian Borg are expected to be decided in the opening weeks of the new year.

Borg is expected to stay put after the planning ombudsman report remarked how Borg purchased a Rabat property in “strange and devious methods.” However, a subsequent report by the Permanent Commission Against Corruption concluded that it found “no proof that a crime or attempt to commit a crime took place, according to Malta’s corruption laws.”

But Falzon, on whose watch Joe Gaffarena’s son, Marco, was paid a controversial €1.65 million for the expropriation of a Valletta property, walks a tightrope.

With the publication of the National Audit Office investigation’s findings imminent, Joseph Muscat has a huge decision to make on Falzon as this could not only reshape the Cabinet of Ministers but also inflame party internal divisions.