I think the prime minister has discovered what it means to receive thousands of obsessive text messages from Franco Debono
My first reaction to the news that the justice portfolio has been whipped away from Manuel Mallia, with the prime minister now having made himself Minister of Justice, was that this is a reaction to the opprobrium drawn down by Manuel Mallia’s performance at the prisons and by the amnesty.
But the amnesty was a cabinet decision, and Manuel Mallia is not the sort you can fry up as a sacrificial lamb. And this is the spin which Malta Today is putting on it, which makes me think again.
Given that we know what was going on with Franco Debono, that he used to send the prime minister and those around him (and others) literally thousands of text messages at all hours of the day and night, demanding that he get his way, I imagine that the same is happening now.
Joseph Muscat has discovered what it is like to be on the receiving end of Franco’s threatening resentment, after thinking what fun it was to collaborate with him for all those months on bringing down the government.
Not such fun now, is it?
An educated guess tells me that Franco Debono has been bombarding the PM with hundreds or thousands of texts on his various obsessions, the main one being that justice and the police should not be in the same ministerial portfolio.
Knowing the way he operates, I suspect he would also have threatened the prime minister with revelation of the communications between him and Muscat when Gonzi was prime minister and they collaborated on undermining him and bringing him down.
The prime minister is in a total fix now.
He has serious problems with Jose Herrera because he didn’t make him Minister for Justice, his excuse being that Manuel Mallia had to be accommodated.
Now that he no longer has that excuse, and is Justice Minister himself (something that is a first for Malta and in a bad way), he cannot fend off Herrera without making it even more obvious that he doesn’t trust him or enjoy the fact that he’s in cahoots with the seriously problematic Jason Micallef.
Yet the prime minister cannot stay Minister for Justice for the next five years. Muscat is going to have to appoint a Minister for Justice soon.
The minute he does that, and it’s not Jose Herrera, Herrera will go AWOL.
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Franco Debono was the first thing that came into my mind too I must say.
Good. Time to sit back and watch the show.
http://zekzik.com/2013/06/18/muscat-icedi-ghal-franco-debono/
I have a suspicion that sooner or later all hell will break loose.
Who says it hasn’t? Muscat is only just beginning to find out that you can’t run a government like a Super One newsroom. People with brains knew that already.
Indeed…..I already had a hunch or a bad feeling about all this…and now it’s just time is proving us right.
Hekk hu: Li tizra’, tahsad!
Ufficjali tal-PN, hallikom mill-apologiji. Jghid x’jghid haddiehor, Gonzi mexa’ (u mexxa’) b’serjeta’ u ntegrita’ fic-cirkustanzi difficli li kellu quddiemu.
Ghax kien serju ma cediex ghall-pressjoni li kellu minn Franco Debono (u ohrajn) li kibritilhom rashom ghax gabu ammont straordinarju ta’ voti.
Hareg ta’ ragel, u mieghu pajjizna, fl-ghazliet politici (kultant difficli) li kellu jaghmel kemm lokalment kif ukoll barra. Kien serju u ha decizjonijiet li tul is-snin urew kemm kienu mehtiega u ta’ beneficcju fit-tul.
Tista’ toqghod tfittex ix-xaghra fl-ghagina biex tmeri dak li ghidt hawn fuq, imma l-fatt jibqa’ li diga’ qed jidher kemm Gonzi kien bil-wisq aktar serju fit-tmexxija mill-kummiedji li qed naraw jizdiedu ma’ kull jum minn dal-gvern.
Il-PN m’ghandux ghalfejn ikompli jitlob skuza u jaghmel apologiji ma’ min bela’ l-lixka ghax haseb li b’Joseph Muscat jista’ jiehu rikba b’xejn.
L-ingann ghad irid ikompli jinkixef, grazzi l-izjed ghal nies bhal Daphne, li kapaci jaqraw car is-sitwazzjoni u ma jibzghux jghiduha – telling it as it is!
So that’s the third cabinet re-shuffle in three months. First Marlene gets re-shuffled out of her supervisory role at the Health Ministry.
Then John Dalli gets shuffled into that role, and now this.
Still, thinking positively about Labour’s electoral victory, I suppose it’s good for another generation to understand exactly why Labour spent 25 years in opposition and why they should do so again……..
Quite apart from the human rights abuse of the last time round, the sheer incompetence and lack of thinking things through continues to boggle the mind.
Here’s an example. A supposedly conservative government raises the property purchase price threshold for foreigners, in a bid to protect low income earners and allow them to continue to buy property. (in part as a reaction to issues raised by….. Labour)
Then, in a bid to get the ‘property market moving’ (translation – repay the developers for all the pre-election contributions), the supposedly progressive and left wing party reduces that threshold and therefore adds competition (and therefore increases prices) for exactly the sort of property low income earners would want to buy. (contrary to its original position)
To add insult to injury, it makes the threshold even lower in the south, where more low income earners reside.
Here’s another. It was a mistake to accept the Chinese freebie to prepare a study for a bridge (which is a bad idea anyway). Why? Well, assuming good faith in the first place (not a given), the bid evaluation committee for the new power station are now forced to automatically exclude the Chinese bidder. They have the same shareholder – the Chinese state. The question is, will they? No, either through bad faith or sheer lack of standards. Three months in and we’re a banana republic already.
Labour – shaming the nation across generations.
Good to see Muscat probably geting a taste of his own medicine.
What I find unusual is the appointment of the Commissioner for Cutting Bureaucracy by 25% of I Dunno What at the same time of this second cabinet reshuffle in a week – the other one was when HuBastjan was appointed Minister for Health and Godfrey Farrugia relegated to a Junior Minister for the Centri tas-Sahha Distrettwali.
When the first Muscat cabinet was sworn in, Michael Falzon’s position in parliament was not yet certain. There was a rumour that if Falzon was elected in bye-elections, then he might become Minister for Justice, and Owen Bonnici would be moved to that ministry.
It seems that on the one hand, Muscat was not planning to keep justice parked under Suor Mallia, but on the other hand, a war would have broken out with the Herrera clan if Falzon was given the Ministry of Justice.
So it seems that Muscat took justice under his wings and gave Falzon a separate iced bun to keep him happy.
That was one Faustian pact too many for poor old Joey.
Now, we just relax and watch the show.
Stock up on the popcorn.
…and Earl Grey…
Maybe John Dalli will be oppointed Minister for Justice and it would be rightly so, as the man is just, honest and ready to sacrifice his life for the good of Malta and its people.
What an incredible man.
It is all as Adrian Vassallo said — that the PL did all in its power to get elected, “…and then we’ll see”.
It is clear to anyone who can see (ie, those not wearing red-tinted spectacles) that this is the case, and that Adrian Vassallo was right to be upset about such an attitude. Unfortunately it is the whole country that will pay for this…
This was very clear to me long before the 9th of March and I do not consider myself super intelligent.
In fact, that is the reason why I still can’t fathom how they managed to fool all those thousands, of course not taking into consideration the ones wearing red-tinted spectacles as you put it.
Welcome to the real world! Running a country is not the same as running an electoral campaign.
That is what the PL can’t fathom. Muscat’s xandira yesterday reeked of campaign mode – they can’t grasp reality, aren’t able to really.
What, are we going to have ANOTHER minister?