Why is Kurt Farrugia speaking to newspapers on behalf of the Maltese government re the sale of citizenship? Who is he?
Kurt Farrugia – now speaking for the government of Malta about the sale of citizenship
The Brussels-based newspaper EU Observer today carries a report about Malta’s sale of passports (‘Malta’s sale of passports causes controversy’).
The person interviewed and quoted on behalf of the Maltese government, giving the government’s position and details about the scheme, is Kurt Farrugia.
Now Kurt Farrugia is the government’s head of communications. While strictly speaking that could be interpreted to mean that he is a spokesman for the government, his real job is to organise and control how the government communicates. A spokesperson is something else, and is specially designated as such.
There is another point: Farrugia is not a member of the government. He is accountable to the government, but it is the government which is accountable to the electorate.
Kurt Farrugia is being pushed out to the newspapers on this issue because 1. Manuel Mallia and Edward Scicluna have made a hash of speaking about it in public; 2. Edward Zammit Lewis, we tend to forget, is not a minister but a PS and accountable to his minister, Chris Cardona, who has been kept out of this entirely unless it is he himself who has refused to get up front; 4. the prime minister is increasingly reluctant to be the spokesman for this matter now that it has earned him international flak; 5. Kurt Farrugia is being used as the stooge, doing the dirty work.
He doesn’t even do that dirty work properly. He told his interviewer that the government does not rule out issuing another quota of applicants over and above the proposed 1,800 and their army of relatives. After the story appeared this morning and some journalists homed in on that point, he doubtless got the rollicking from hell and immediately rang his interviewer again to say that the government does, after all, rule it out.
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http://euobserver.com/justice/122627
Poor Mel Holmes.
I’ve told my mates to look out for ‘statements’ from this bloke.
The gift that keeps on giving.
He couldn’t find his arse with both hands.
No matter how hard we try we do not seem to get anything right.
One cock-up after the other means that the little credibility we had left when the scheme was rehashed has now also been lost.
Sooner or later Henley themselves will realise that it would be better for their reputation if they abandoned ship.
Daphne, it is unfortunate that, far too often, this blog has to assume the role of an ‘Online Skola tan-Nuna’. Someone in Form 1 should know the difference between head of communication and a spokesperson.
I wouldn’t put it past them if they modified Farrugia’s contract to include ‘spokesman’.
Imma ghaliex kull ma jaghmlu pudina?
When I read the report I as gong to post a comment here, asking who is Farrugia. It didn’t occur to me it was Kurt Farrugia as his name is never mentioned, only the surname.
[Daphne – Yes, I know. I read it several times over to make sure. It was in the original report this morning, and I think what happened is that when they removed the reference to Kurt Farrugia saying that the government does not rule out etc, they also removed his initial introduction in the piece.]
I suspect that he is active on the comment of these same newspapers as kadmin.
Real amateurs…shows how long ago they were in government.
Bidu Gdid.
Hawwadlu Papru.
Froga wara l-ohra.
X’ dizastru ta’ gvern. Povra Malta taghna.
Ghamlu manuvra malizjuza anke dwar il-pensjonijiet tal-anzjani.
Missom jisthu jitnejku anke bl’anzjani.
Dawn qed jahsbu li ghax kien hemm nies nazzjonalisti li vvutawlhom qed jahsbu li kullhadd injorant. Imma ser jarralhom bi kbir.