Speaker rejects Opposition request to convene urgent Parliament sitting

Speaker of the House of Representatives Anglu Farrugia yesterday evening rejected a request by the Opposition for the House of Representatives to be convened urgently last night to debate the national situation.

In his letter to Opposition Leader Adrian Delia, Anglu Farrugia said the government had not agreed to the request and, since there had been no agreement, the session could not be convened.

The PN parliamentary group met yesterday after being summoned urgently by leader Adrian Delia following reports that 17 Black owner Yorgen Fenech had requested a presidential pardon in relation to police investigations into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

In a statement, Leader of the Opposition Adrian Delia said Malta was facing an unprecedented constitutional and institutional crisis, and that high-ranking government officials had failed to uphold the law. Moreover, a number of them were being, or should be, investigated in the light of allegations of wrongdoing, he said.

The PN also said that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat should shoulder political responsibility and resign in the wake of the arrest of Yorgen Fenech, whose company 17 Black was listed as a “target client” for the secretive Panama companies set up by

Muscat’s chief of staff Keith Schembri and Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi.

“Ongoing investigations must be free of any vitiation. This risk exists because persons, including the prime minister, involved in the conduct of these investigations could be close to persons of interest in the same investigations.

“Prime Minister Muscat has lost every moral authority to lead the country and has for years evaded his political responsibilities. Now with every minute that passes Muscat has little space to manoeuvre. Our country is suffering the consequences of the corrupt and criminal behaviour of those close to the prime minister – people he continues to protect to this day.”

The request for Parliament to convene urgently was made by Delia with the support of the whole parliamentary group.

In reply, the government said that the Opposition’s request “shows its state of confusion.”

“On the one hand, [the Opposition] says that the PM should not speak about the case and, on the other, it wants a parliamentary debate to discuss the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia,” the statement said.

“This request is coming from an Opposition which walked out of Parliament last

Wednesday.

It would do well to allow the institutions it criticises to do their duty, as they are doing,” the government said.

PD calls for urgent parliamentary session ‘to remove Joseph Muscat’

Partit Demokratiku has also called for an urgent session of Parliament “to remove Prime Minister Joseph Muscat from office”.

The party said in a statement yesterday: “Yorgen Fenech thinks he can walk away from an assassination. He is offering us a deal. He will tell us all if we let him go. Our response is simple: Yorgen, we are not your mates Keith and Konrad. You will not escape justice.

“The very fact that Yorgen Fenech has asked for a presidential pardon is confirmation that the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia is not as self-contained as Prime Minister Joseph Muscat suggested following Fenech’s arrest on Wednesday.

“This is sufficient to draw political conclusions: Joseph must go, now.”

PD called on all MPs to hold an urgent session in Parliament, “ideally today [yesterday] and before any decision is made by Joseph Muscat on Fenech’s dirty deal – to discuss a no confidence motion in Joseph Muscat.