Newly discovered footage of the earliest political sufferings of Franco l-Baggio
Published:
January 18, 2012 at 10:16pm
When the national anthem begins to play, look at Eddie Fenech Adami’s right shoulder and see who’s elbowed himself into the direct line of vision.
Click on the YouTube icon in the lower righthand corner to watch the video directly on YouTube (and see the title).
51 Comments Comment
Reply to Rih fil-poppa Click here to cancel reply
What a pity Franco didn’t move a bit more to the right. His face would have been placed exactly instead of the George Cross.
So he always had that nervous twitch and looked oblivious to his surroundings.
I thought that was the result of his current suffering.
“tghidx kemm bata” means “tghidx kemm ippoppa sidru.”
Oh Franco, faded in the red part of the flag. A coincidence?
Eddie ragel kbir!
God Bless Eddie and God Bless Our Innu Malti……. and sod Franco’s image dissolving gradually in red.
U qatt ma qaghad jurina c-certifikat tal-Form 2c.
Eddie is synonymous with the much-yearned-for change Malta so truly deserved after years of Mintoff’s treacherous and unpredictable governance.
Franco in 2009:
“Nationalist backbencher Franco Debono broke his three-day silence yesterday, saying he would never do anything to topple the government.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091219/local/absent-mp-vows-loyalty-to-party.286543#.Txcfy_XyUZU.facebook
I also see John Bundy.
Was that the 1998 election?
[Daphne – Yes, it says so in the title.]
This brought tears to my eyes. Eddie was the greatest leader Malta has ever had.
Truly a man for all seasons and a great and inspirational leader.
Easy now, Alexia. PN has given this nation formidable leaders and the last three I remember have been the fruit of a party with success written all over it.
George Borg Olivier had the necessary vision to believe in Malta and the Maltese and brought about Independence to this tiny island of ours. Eddie, notwithstanding having Mintoff and his marmalja in his way, stretched Malta from an indipendent country dealing with things on its own to one of being equal with the smaller, but also the giants, of the whole EU.
Gonzi introduced speed and self-belief in the way we do politics and has truly turned Malta from a subsidies-oriented economy to one that can stand on its two feet, notwithstanding all the turmoil around us.
To appreciate what Gonzi has so far acheived, you just wait and watch Labour run our country in the next year or two and you will immediately recognise the difference from the word ‘start’.
Live the moment and be proud that Malta is blessed to have PN as one of its two political parties. Franco will disappear into thin political air within the next 20 weeks or so and he’ll probably also do a Johnny Cole.
PN has to go through the eye of the needle, as it must in a democracy, to come out stronger and hopefully wiser. Wisdom and vision are synonymous with PN over its over 120 years of existance.
True I was moved too, especially when you see how much he believed that even prayers could help Malta’s cause.
X’ differenza fil-kwalita!
It really did bring tears to my eyes. He believed in US.
@Alexia – it happened to me too, Alexia. Eddie ragel kbir.
An inspirational leader.
I sometimes wish he was still leading the party. Nobody would have dared defy Eddie.
We need leaders like him.
I miss those meetings; looking back it has brought tears to my eyes, until at 2.20 I saw 2 traitors, FB and JB.
What memories.! I cried when i saw this – me, a grown man poshing 50. Those were the days.
Those days, we had Eddie. And all was OK. Eddie surrounded by the best minds in Malta. Mhux l-imbarazz li ghandna ma’ saqajna bhalissa. Yes Franco, I’m referring to you. Don’t be Malta`s Quisling. Don’t betray these people. They trusted you.
I agree that Eddie was indeed one of the greatest leaders Malta has ever had, but I also believe that Lawrence Gonzi is proving to be as outstanding as his predecessor, and all this in time of great turmoil.
Hear, hear.
I don’t quite agree with you.
Nobody would have dared defy Eddie. But Dr Gonzi does not seem to know how to handle some backbenchers.
Maybe Eddie never had anyone as dishonourable as FD & Co. in the house.
This clip brings back those memories of 1996/1998 when people decided that the government had to change ‘ghax hekk’, thereby throwing away 10 solid years of PN hard work
How sad, to think we can have a repeat because one person cannot put things into perpective, and because a number of people have forgotten those disastrous two years
I still cannot get over what he said in his thesis about how politicians should act. He doing the exact opposite.
I still cannot get over the fact that he said he will never topple goverment. He is about to do just that.
Franco must have a hidden agenda.
It’s too late for him to change his mind. Now that he has declared war on the prime minister, there is no way he can come out of this without looking like a complete idiot.
I agree! Can’t see a way out of this unfortunately, but even if by some miracle an agreement is reached he will continue blackmailing the PM till the very end.
It is revolting to have to see that sorry excuse for a man standing next to the greatest politician Malta has ever known.
It’s John Doe
He may not necessarily have shoved his way to the front. Political parties like to give visibility to new, young candidates on such occasions as it helps the party’s image.
Nah, his posture says it all.
He was totally uninterested on what was going on around him. He just kept looking to his sides and proud of himself that he was the one in the front and closest to the great man.
All the rest, to him, was unimportant.
There was no warmth (like all the others behind him in the clip) about him. He did not even try to smile – totally disengaged from the people on the stage and the thousands in front of him.
He just had that smirk which we got to now read as ‘qrusa’, that he succeeded and all the rest had to stand behind him and further from Eddie.
Agreed.
He was always next to Lawrence Gonzi during ‘taht it-tinda’ events in the fifth district, endorsed as one of the new candidates entrusted with renewal.
Franco went on to discard chairmanship of the committee for recodification of laws, as if that isn’t controvertible access to innovation of the inner workings of the democratic process.
Isn’t that Jason Azzopardi next to Franco Debono? Another reason for sour-grapes Debono to feel he’s been cheated.
Fl-ahhar tal-mazzita, tidher iz-zbiba.
I suggest you take a look at Robert Musumeci’s Facebook page, I believe the magistrate not only took his b***s but also his brains, if he ever had any.
Another loser in the making – lets hope we do not see him on the PN list again.
Someone should open his eyes. We have finally reached the end of Franco il-Pagun Debono, and let’s not start another saga with Robert il-Friza Musumeci.
He’s too busy processing applications.
Le Dauphin.
What a great leader. Franco, I suggest you to watch some of Dr Eddie Fenech Adami’s speeches.
Ranier Fsadni wrote a brilliant article in today’s The Times. It ties in very nicely with your article in The Malta Independent today.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120119/opinion/Take-Franco-seriously.402976
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=138425
I would actually go a step further. I would say that no one has bothered looking at the proposals he is making.
Those in the justice field, for example, simply do not make sense, or better, only make sense for lawyers who earn their bread and butter from setting criminals free.
I just saw Joe Giglio on TVAM this morning, and basically he was repeating Il-Frank’s arguments that the Attorney General should have his say in prosecutions reduced to zero.
You know, put that kind of power into the hands of inquiring magistrates like that glorious justice system that Italy does.
Magistrates of the Sinistra Democratica (they have political factions in Consiglio Superiore dei Magistrati) suffer from “protagonismo” and therefore they enjoy the limelight.
It is a known fact that Magistratura Democratica does all it can to occupy the procure. It is part of their manifesto to replace justice with social justice.
According to them, a small entrepreneur shouldn’t get the same sentence as a tycoon, if accused of the same wrongdoing.
Berlusconi was subjected to over a hundred court cases as soon as he entered politics. De Benedetti who owns La Repubblica and a major sponsor of the left, remained unscathed, even though he too, was embroiled in a number of scandals.
De Benedetti had lost Montedison publishing house to Berlusconi. A magistrate who kept Che’ Geuvara posters in his office awarded De Benedetti compensation running into half a billion euros last year. The Presidency had to intervene, given the financial damage this would have caused.
Saviour Balzan has been pushing for this state of affairs for over a year.
Put that power into the hands of magistrates who shag their court experts while on an inkjesta. Smart move, eh?
Elbowed? Kont qed nistenna xi daqqa ta’ ponn jien, ghax dak il-camerman tronga li ma gabx lil EFA fin-nofs.
I can never forget many things. It is useless to say that we should forget the past and go forward to our future if our past means we will stork like try to nullify what brought Malta to where it is now.
I shudder to think that at the roots of the Labour Party there are still the men from the past, with all their baggage and all their hdura.
Amnesty International considered Malta not a free country back then when they governed. They are judged by their actions, by those who know of those actions and remember them.
Watching this video, thinking about those days and about what is to come, I know how I should vote. I need no blue backgrounds or cock-fighting “politikant ta’ żewġ soldi” to try and convince me otherwise.
Damn you have so much time on your hands ux to go and look up this old film in some dark, dusty archive to bring up the good old memories…….
Wake up and live in the present and if you have to look look in the future.
We are a new Generation, you people are living in the past still mentioning old incidents and what not…..
Your time is up old timers now its about time that we are given a chance
Er…you’re talking to the wrong audience here. Should you be addressing yourself to Alex Sceberras Trigona, Karmenu Vella, Joe Debono Grech, et al.? They’re sitting on the other side, waiting to take over.
Yes, yes… take the chance my friend, please do. Remember that history tends to repeat itself many times over.
Jien hsibtek ha tghidli mnejn sa fejn in-Nazzjonalisti jdoqqu l-innu Malti f’meeting taghhom.
[Daphne – To remind people that this was not about power but about the national interest, and time has proved that correct. The 1998 and 2003 elections were all about the fate of Malta OUTSIDE THE EUROPEAN UNION. So was 1996, but we forgot that and look what happened. Do you think people like me support the Nationalist Party and its policies because we think of it as our band club or football team? Or because this is a very serious matter?]
I can’t understand how many people (judging from the running commentary on timesofmalta.com) do not see Franco the way he really is, that is, an utter prat.
[Daphne – Most of them are just being disingenuous for political or personal reasons. Don’t be too impressed. It’s the survey results you have to look at – find them in last Sunday’s The Sunday Times.]
On the contrary, they are taking him seriously. And I don’t think I’m saying this as a PN sympathizer because if he was a Labour MP doing the same things in the context of a Labour government I would probably think the same of him. I don’t know, maybe I watched to many online spoofs about Franco.
http://www.azzopardinicky.com/2012/01/practice-what-you-preach-francos-thesis.html
I know it was already posted, but Nick Azzopardi has added scans of Franco`s thesis for download.
More gems from Franco’s punctuation free zone:
“It means only that the government and individual ministers must usually explains (sic) and justify themselves to Parliament and if House (sic) so votes the government must resign.”
A”dded to representative government, responsible government it means (sic) that government is carried on by persons who are responsible..”
“This is not so much power as a high degree of influence and it does much to make the lives of MP’s (sic) worthwhile.”
“But such influence is seldom exercised in the open and free debate and it fails to attract attention, so that Parliament has tended to fall in public estimate (sic) further than its position, as the leading source of political pressure in the country, merits.”
“A Prime Minister could be removed in reality by a revolt of his cabinet. (…) A second possibility would be a move in the parliamentary party. Continuing support in the party is the precondition of the prime Minister’s authority in Parliament.” (Brian’s note: You can see the roots of today’s surreal situation).
“In July 1998 Dr Alfred Sant lost the confidence of the House due to Mr Mintoff, a member of Sant’s parliamentary party crossing the floor. However Dr. Sant retained the confidence of his party and remained Prime Minister although he had to advise a dissolution (sic) since he no longer had a parliamentary majority.”
“The right of General Council/Conference to select a Leader implies the right to choose a new leader in place of a Prime Minister who has lost the confidence of the party [footnote: compare to Michels’ Iron Law of Oligarchy when the Leader becomes practically irremovable.]” (Brian’s note: hemm qeghda d-duda.)
Din ghalik, Franco!
Ahsibha sew! Sewwa ahsibha! Tiddizzappuntax eluf ta’ Maltin.
Li ghandek lil Eddie quddiemek zgur li jaghtik parir siewi.
The writing is not on the wall! Ghaliex pjanajt li titlaq minn Malta? Ghaliex? Kontra l-hsieb tal-bosta, nemmen li Malta bl-ideat tieghek tkun bil-wisq ahjar, izda issa ghandek ghazla quddiemek: PN jew MLP?
Bhal Guda fl-ahhar cena.