Georg Sapiano, the TV commentator and lawyer turned Nationalist Party candidate, has conceded that the Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando affair has posed unanswered questions, describing the Nationalist MP’s declarations as “strange”.
Pullicino Orlando is embroiled in a police investigation over whether undue influence was exerted on the award of a permit for a disco on his land in Mistra. Pullicino Orlando has notoriously claimed that he knew nothing of the planning application that was lodged on his own land, despite evidence to the contrary.
Speaking on Reporter, on PBS, Sapiano said, “When I saw the press conference where Pullicino Orlando said that somebody had applied on his land and he didn’t know what was happening, I felt it sounded strange to have a piece of land and not knowing what is happening on it.
“To this day however, until everything is clarified the case remains a question mark, and until now nothing is clarified.”
Sapiano admitted that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had a difficult chore in creating a balance between justice, good administration and discipline among his MPs, referring to Gonzi’s one-seat majority in parliament and the question mark still hanging over Pullicino Orlando.
Sapiano, who in the past has declared being in favour of the introduction of divorce despite the PN’s opposition, has also claimed the issue is indeed on the PN’s agenda.
He said the PN was a party which had “a culture that accepts this dissent, where it otherwise does not exist in Labour. I would have been expelled had I said something similar in Labour.”
Sapiano described himself as not being in agreement with certain mainstream tenets within the PN: “I spoke about back in 1992 when I was active at Radio101, when I said I was in favour of democracy and also in favour of divorce. And I am in favour of creating a debate.”