The first time I saw Franco Debono was was at a cafe before the 2003 elections. He entered with his canvassing entourage, and the sound of ‘ghax jien’ was quite prominent.

‘Who is this tosser?’I asked the cafe owner after they’d left. Oh, he’s Franco Debono, a prospective MP, he replied. ‘Must be Labour’ I ventured. No, he’s actually Nationalist was the unexpected answer.

I know Franco from sixth form (he was not in my class, but he made sure you would see him around) and the Courts. It was very easy to spot what kind of person he is.

I was really surprised to see him accepted as a PN candidate. My thought at the time was ‘I wouldn’t have said he is a Nationalist. He’s got something good in him after all’.

Then it seems my feelings about him were right all along.

Besides that, I have heard from insiders that the top brass in PN were warned about him and the way he was badmouthing his fellow candidates, but they accepted him anyway.

Bad decision.

[Daphne – So nice to find you agree with me on that. There’s a bit of a serious problem with my generation, I’m afraid (Jeffrey is a year or so my senior): massive, massive Peter Pan syndrome and a complete reluctance to adjust to any stage in life beyond the age of 30. The women are as bad as the men. So they’ve stretched 30 all the way to 50, but now I’m really curious to see how they’re going to take 50 through to 60 and beyond. I try to imagine our parents’ generation behaving like that and I just can’t. Some of my contemporaries are at the stage where their children, now in their mid to late 20s because in those days we married young, are more grown-up than they are. Jeffrey has a daughter of 24 who probably comports herself better than her father does.]

Manuel Mallia will be comfortable letting others do the work while he poses and gives press conferences.

It is ‘really’ possible that the PN did not know what kind of person Franco was.

It is a known fact that narcissists are very difficult to spot if not after months or years that one has been close to them. People like Daphne who can quickly and rightly sum up a character do not enter into this equation.

However, I can easily see how a person like Franco would have advanced in the party structure and couldn’t be stopped until it was too late.

Narcissists begin by being the most altruistic, loving and kind persons on earth. You are forgiven to think that you have found prince charming or Gandhi/Mother Theresa. Only time will bring out their true character.

When they have exhausted all the admiration and help you give them, they just throw you out and replace you with someone or something else.

[Daphne – Ah, you don’t know Jeffrey. He will expect it and demand it, and when it doesn’t happen, he will follow Muscat around obsessively with a knife (metaphorically speaking).]