I think Giovanna Debono is the route to Anton Refalo, to make way for Franco Mercieca

Twanny Bronka aka Anton Relfao, the Minister for Gozo

The prime minister with Franco Mercieca

As Gozo Minister Anton Refalo goes under siege of accusations about his own construction-works-for-votes, threatens to sue for libel, is admitted to hospital with heart problems while the police search his office (which was previously Mrs Debono’s), and sees his wife, a civil servant, transferred from his office to the Gozo Hospital, I can’t help thinking that he is the ultimate target of the carefully-planned attack on Giovanna Debono.

It wasn’t an attack on Debono at all: she and her husband, deservedly or otherwise, are just the fall-guys. The prime minister is actually gunning for one of his own: Anton Refalo. Hence the absurd timing of the accusations against former minister Debono and her husband. Whether the allegations are true or not, the revelatory give-away here is that the prime minister has known about them for almost two years and has only now pulled them out of his sleeve.

More tellingly still, he has done or said nothing to defend Anton Refalo. I would suggest that the man is going down, and that he is going down to make way for the prime minister’s close friend Franco Mercieca, who has signalled that he wants to return to the cabinet, but it has to be made worth his while – Gozo Minister, not poxy PS for the elderly.