The Malta Independent on Sunday
PARLIAMENT Of resignations, co-options and other changes
Almost one fifth of the Members of Parliament who started this legislature will not be sitting in the House of Representatives when the last session will be held before parliament is dissolved ahead of the next general election; or else they will be present but under different circumstances than when the House convened the first time on 24 June 2017.
In the last three and a half years, there have been nine resignations, three changes of party allegiance and one death – a total of 13 of the 67 MPs.
Added to this, for the first time in history both major political parties changed their leader in the same legislature (the Nationalist Party did so twice), meaning that both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader will be taking their party to the next election as leaders for the first time.
RESIGNATIONS
Of the nine resignations, four are from the Labour Party and five from the Nationalist Party.
Two of the PN resignations were a result of the double change in leadership, which meant that two MPs who had legitimately won their seat via popular vote had to give it up to make way for the leader, who needed a co-option to take a seat in the House.
The resignations from the Labour camp included those of a former Prime Minister and deputy leader, both of whom quit in murky circumstances. The resignations from the PN camp included that of the former Opposition Leader.
Labour Party
Helena Dalli was the first to leave Parliament for Labour in this legislature. She had achieved the feat of being elected from two districts in 2017, one of only two women who managed – the other was Marthese Portelli, on the PN side, and even she later resigned.
In 2017, Dalli had been appointed Minister for European Affairs and Equality, but she resigned after she was nominated by the government to become Malta’s European Commissioner, with responsibility for equality. In the Cabinet, she had been replaced by Edward Zammit Lewis; in Parliament, by Jean Claude Micallef.
Chris Cardona was next, but his resignation was not because of a more prestigious appointment. Cardona, it must be remembered, was also deputy leader of the PL. He had first suspended himself when, late in 2019, his name cropped up during investigations into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. He denied any involvement or wrongdoing, and was re-instated within a few days. But then he did not make it to the Cabinet of Robert Abela in January, and later mounting pressure led to his resignation from both roles – as an MP, he was replaced by Ian Castaldi Paris; as PL deputy leader, he was succeeded by Daniel Micallef.
The two latest resignations, on Labour’s side, arrived this month.
Joseph Muscat had quit as Prime Minister in January this year, forced to leave in the wake of developments in connection with the Caruana Galizia assassination after his right hand man, Keith Schembri, had been arrested. Earlier this month, he also resigned from Parliament. A dark cloud still hovers above Muscat, who had strenuously defended Schembri, now also under investigation for moneylaundering activities. Schembri, together with Konrad Mizzi, had opened companies in Panama; Muscat (and Labour) had vigorously defended both, although in recent weeks it has become clear that various ministers were privately complaining to Muscat that no decisive political action had been taken.
A few days after Muscat’s resignation came that of Etienne Grech, officially for private reasons. Grech was a backbencher.
With no eligible candidate submitting a nomination for a casual election to replace Muscat, and with Grech having been elected via casual election, the PL had to co-opt two new MPs. The party chose MEP Miriam Dalli and OPM chief of staff Clyde Caruana were chosen. They were officially co-opted last Monday.
Nationalist Party
Soon after the 2017 election, Simon Busuttil quit the PN leadership post and had been replaced by Adrian Delia, who had not contested the election and needed a co-option to find a place in Parliament. It was Jean-Pierre Debono who sacrificed his place. Debono had been elected for the first time and had worked assiduously for Delia. But, in what was possibly the first sign of so much discontent within the parliamentary group for the choice made by the tesserati, no-one else wanted to give up their seat to Delia until Debono stepped up.
Simon Busuttil stayed on in the Maltese Parliament for nearly three years until he found the right opportunity to leave. He is now the secretary general of the EPP group in the European Parliament. Busuttil was replaced by David Thake after a tight casual election race against Graziella Galea.
As for Debono, in 2019 he could have returned to Parliament, via co-option, after the resignation of Gozitan MP David Stellini, who returned to a job in the European Parliament. Debono had the support of the party administration to fill the seat vacated by Stellini, but in what was yet another chapter of the internal rift within the PN under Delia’s leadership, the party ultimately chose to co-opt Kevin Cutajar who, like Stellini, had contested on the Gozo electoral district.
The most unexpected resignation from within the PN fold was that of Marthese Portelli, who resigned in February this year and, a month later, was appointed director general of the Malta Developers Association. She was replaced via casual election by Ivan J. Bartolo, whose adventure in the House of Representatives barely lasted half a year. Bartolo was the one who gave up his seat earlier this month for the co-option of the newly-elected PN leader Bernard Grech, who defeated Delia in a PN leadership election race spurred by a group of rebel MPs.
CHANGE OF PARTY
There have been three official changes of allegiance in the House of Representatives in this term, two out of choice and the other was forced.
Godfrey Farrugia and Marlene Farrugia were both elected in 2017 as representatives of the Partit Demokratiku, which had formed a coalition with the Nationalist Party, known as Forza Nazzjonali. But they immediately distanced themselves from the PN as soon as Busuttil resigned and was replaced by Delia.
The two, it must be remembered, had been elected on behalf of the Labour Party in 2013, with Godfrey Farrugia also serving as a minister and later as a whip. But they had broken ranks from the PL before the 2017 elec
tion – Marlene in 2015 and Godfrey just before the 2017 vote. Marlene had formed the PD, which Godfrey later joined, and both had temporarily served as PD leaders. But in 2019 they together announced their resignation from the PD, and since then have continued to serve as independent MPs, saying they have no interest to contest the next election.
For some years, and until he had the protection of Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi had been viewed as a “star” by Labour. In spite of the Panama Papers scandal, he had remained a minister in 2016 and was re-appointed a minister after the 2017 election. Mizzi resigned as Tourism Minister in November 2019, on the same day that Keith Schembri had quit as OPM chief of staff after the latter’s arrest. After Muscat was replaced by Abela, Mizzi’s star quickly faded and in June of this year, matters had changed so drastically that he was kicked out of Labour’s parliamentary group. He now serves as an independent MP, although he pledged allegiance to the Labour government.
DEATH
Nationalist Party long-serving Gozitan politician Frederick Azzopardi passed away on 17 October. He is still to be replaced in Parliament.
LEADERS
The resignations of Simon Busuttil and Joseph Muscat mean that the two major parties will both be facing the next election with a new leader. In Labour’s case, it will be Robert Abela and, in the PN’s case, it will be Bernard Grech, who took over from Adrian Delia earlier this month after Delia had replaced Busuttil in 2017.
It is the first time ever that both major parties changed their leader in the same legislature (in the PN’s case, it happened twice).
Between 1951 and 1976, the leaders were Dom Mintoff (Labour) and George Borg Olivier (PN). In came Eddie Fenech Adami for his first election as PN leader in 1981. Mintoff was still PL leader in 1981, with Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici taking over Labour’s leadership for the first election in 1987, and was beaten again by Fenech Adami in 1992.
Alfred Sant was elected PL leader in 1992, and there followed three elections between Sant and Fenech Adami (1996, 1998 and 2003). Lawrence Gonzi led the PN in an election for the first time in 2008; against Sant, who was then replaced by Joseph Muscat for the 2013 election.
Muscat then had newcomer Simon Busuttil as his challenger for the 2017 election.