The Prime Minister will be pushing the debate on party financing at tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting following weeks of claims and counter-claims on politicians’ close and obscure ties to businessmen.
The debate will be held against the backdrop of a widespread discussion triggered by Labour’s intensive campaign targeting PN secretary general Joe Saliba’s ties to construction magnate Zaren Vassallo, with whom he recently spent a week aboard his luxury cabin cruiser Princess Charlene on a holiday in the Mediterranean.
The Labour onslaught eventually backfired, as sister paper Illum revealed that Vassallo was also a generous donor to the opposition party while another construction giant, Charles Polidano, also claimed to have built the Super One building’s roof as well as helping the PN build its new headquarters in Pieta’.
Tomorrow’s Cabinet discussion is meant to be the first step towards a full-fledged debate in Parliament in a bid to introduce party financing laws, as public concern about the parties’ ties to big businesses and lack of transparency in hefty donations have already marked the direction the election campaign in its early stages.
The debate comes 12 years after the PN’s intransigence on the so-called Galdes Commission led to an aborted reform, when it resisted capping party donations at Lm10,000 and having to declare every contribution above Lm5,000, wanting to double both ceilings.
At that time, Lawrence Gonzi was still speaker of the House but now he finds himself steering the debate unwittingly stirred up by Saliba.

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