Anglu Farrugia’s Friday the 13th motion
Anglu Farrugia has presented for discussion and the vote in parliament, together with party whip Joe Mizzi, a private member’s motion of no confidence in the government.
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The terminology being used in current online reports, that ‘the Labour Party has presented a motion’ is incorrect.
The Labour Party cannot present a motion.
In parliament, it is not the Labour Party but the Opposition. Joseph Muscat, in parliament, is not the leader of the Labour Party but the Leader of the Opposition.
And the Opposition cannot bring motions for discussion – only the government can do that.
In all other cases, it is always a private member’s motion or a private member’s bill.
So this is not the Labour Party’s motion. It is Anglu Farrugia’s private member’s motion.
This makes no difference to the actual vote, or to the result, but it is an important fact all the same because it has direct bearing on our discussion of the motion itself, and of the context in which it was presented.
Anglu Farrugia is the party’s deputy leader, and will be deputy prime minister quite shortly at this rate. Deputy, not actual. So what we have to ask ourselves here is why, on a matter of such great significance, the actual leader of the Opposition has delegated the presentation of this motion to his deputy, instead of doing it himself.
He is not out of the country. He is not even unconscious. And if he were incapacitated with a fractured leg, as he was the summer before last when Anglu deputised for him in public duties (when he could elbow Michelle out of the way), he would still have been able to sign the motion himself.
There are three reasons I can think of. The first and most obvious is that Muscat is hedging his bets. He knows there is a good chance that Debono will abstain and that the motion will not be upheld. So he doesn’t want to be associated with its defeat. He’ll leave that to Anglu Farrugia.
The second is that he doesn’t want to seem too hungry for power by bringing down the government a year before time and throwing the country into electoral chaos at this point. This would tie in with his toned-down performance on Bondi+ last night. He’ll leave it to Anglu Farrugia to come across as salivating at the thought of becoming deputy prime minister.
The third, and here I would think we have the real reason, is that he knows there is no way on earth that Franco Debono is going to vote for a motion brought by Joseph Muscat. Muscat’s name and signature on that motion would have been a cast-iron guarantee that Debono would not vote for it. His hatred for Muscat is so great that Muscat’s ownership of this motion, his name and signature on it, might actually have provoked Debono to vote against it.
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Is that motion signed by a possible future Minister of Justice of Labour?
Interesting why the motion presented excluded its discussion in parliament.
Maybe they didn’t feel like risking Joseph’s chances with Franco.
Franco Debono knows that, whoever officially presents the motion, the end-result of his voting against the government would be that he is permanently out of the picture and Joseph Muscat becomes PM.
His impulsive outburst when contacted by Labour journalists soon after the reshuffle and his stubborn refusal to soften his hostile attitude towards the PM have brought him to this.
Or worse, it could be that the old guard has done a coup d’etat and imposed the motion on Joseph Muscat.
Joseph Muscat has not been sounding very enthusiastic about facing an election from the start of this ordeal.
It may well be as you said. They must have realised that if given enough time, a solution to the impasse would have been more likely and indeed, possible.
Muscat’s decision was too quick and contrasted with what he was saying up to a few hours before. Riedu jahtfu l-okkazzjoni qabel ma tahrab.
What do you think will happen on Thursday? Do you think Franco Debono will vote with the Opposition?
If not, which I’m inclined to believe, why would he have gone through such trouble, compromising his career as a politician for nothing? Thanks.
[Daphne – Because he thinks he’s actually doing the opposite: furthering his political career.]
As I see it, Franco has two options.
1. Abstain, and still be in the limelight for the next 13 months (something that he really enjoys).
2. Bring down the government by voting for the motion, bow out of the scene and never walk with his head high for the rest of his life.
The choice is his. Either way, Malta will survive.
He has a third option – the only one, really – to vote against the motion.
It’s the only option that is in his interest and in the country’s, the government’s and the party’s interest too.
La Redoute, that third option is really the only one he has in his own interest too, if he wishes to walk down Republic Street with his head held high. And it is the only way he can deliver the message to his eternal adversary Joseph Muscat that the latter has been promoted beyond his capabilities too fast.
That’s what I said – it’s the only option he has.
The motions do not appear to have been written by Anglu Farrugia: there are only three spelling mistakes and one typo, far less than his average score.
Interesting to note that the Opposition has already broken one of their 51 proposals.
They promised that they would allow us to work. So instead of allowing the Prime Minister to carry out his work and go to Tunisia and Qatar, thereby creating more opportunities for the Maltese businesses, he is going to have to stay in Malta and pander to the wishes of a wannabe prime minister.
The Times is having a field day uploading the comments of PL supporters. The same vein – hatred, envy, and Malta has gone through hell under a PN government, someone said.
They certainly have not changed their attitude. What is it with Labour supporters that they cannot argue in a civilised and decent manner with people who support the PN?
I suppose before one or two generations pop off, we are still going on this way. Bickering like village idiots. What a pity.
Hopefully such hate-filled remarks will shake “disgruntled” PN supporters and make them realise what would happen if Labour is returned to power.
I sometimes do it on the Maltatoday website – half a dozen well-chosen words bring a flood of illiterate viciousness and verbal violence. It’s good to see what the PL still stands for.
It’s also good to see what sort of clientele Roger “Dainty” Degiorgio caters for.
I wonder if anyone can answer me, because I am quite curious about this…but why are Labour dropping their own branding, i.e the colour red and the logo they spent half a year developing?
Do they think that all this will serve as a reminder to their own past?
Well, this is Franco Debono’s chance to get one over on Muscat. Dangling the keys to Castille in front of Muscat’s face, and then snatching them away from him, leaving him saddled with yards of material he’s already bought for his office.
The motion specifically mentions ‘the government’. (…jekk il-gvern igawdix…)
How can Franco Debono vote in favour of such a motion if he is to remain credible?
He has already made it clear that his issue is with Lawrence Gonzi and not with a Nationalist government. This is the reason why I think he will abstain.
The logic “flows” from premise to conclusion in all three arguments, but how can you prove the veracity of the premise?
Telling me that you have a nose for this things does not count.
[Daphne – What do you take to be the premise?]
The premise is that Franco Debono “hates” Joseph Muscat and that Joseph Muscat is provoking Franco Debono to “act without thinking” (funny, that).
[Daphne – Oh, I see. Well, in that case I can reply with confidence that it’s not because I ‘have a nose for these things’. That’s not the sort of information you can sense or deduce. You need facts. And the fact is that the situation we are seeing out in public now has been going on in ‘private’ since June 2008, with various key people being subjected to a barrage of fixated telephone calls and text messages. The complaints always go back to his school reports, his school marks and the fact that Joseph Muscat is party leader and he is ‘nothing’, even though he got better marks at school. Yes, he hates him. He cannot even bring himself to discuss him, beyond saying that he got worse marks at school.]
A matter of such significance…. to be concluded before noon? In time for your lunch break?
Franco Debono made our parliament a school playground, first with playground quarreling, then with the opposition demanding to go out on break and eat their sandwiches at noon.
And now Joseph has called them in for detention… on Saturday.
What else? Franco gets his mobile confiscated because it rings in class?
Please make me stop.
What else? Swings and roundabouts so that Franco Debono and Jose Herrera can let off steam and calm down after their tantrums.
You could well be spot on about Joey’s very recent take on this Daphne, especially considering that he is reported to have said only this morning on TVM that it would not be he who would move for a (no) confidence vote.
Either way for me, regardless of who signed it – it’s a Labour motion, full stop.
Mind you, maybe he just couldn’t be arsed to turn up and sign the thing, so he just sent good ol’Swiss Toni!
It’s going to be a very interesting six days.
Franco Debono’s name will always be remembered as is Benedict Arnold’s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_Arnold