News | Sunday, 15 February 2009

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

PN ‘super-mole’ informs Labour of what PM is doing

A veritable rebellion from Nationalist backbenchers and former ministers last Wednesday forced the prime minister into retreat over the proposed €16 million underground extension for St John’s Co-Cathedral.
Lawrence Gonzi was faced with no alternative but to backtrack over the allocation of millions in EU funds for the Cathedral’s underground museum, as he faced a rebellion from Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Censu Galea, Ninu Zammit, Jesmond Mugliett and Robert Arrigo.
With the sure probability of losing face in parliament on the motion against the project presented by the Opposition, Gonzi did not want to give Joseph Muscat an even bigger winning card before the European Parliament and local council elections.
In an attempt to avoid any leaks to the Labour Party and the press, Gonzi decided to call a meeting just four hours before parliament convened to discuss the motion on Wednesday evening.
But the ‘permanent’ presence of a super-mole in the PN parliamentary group, led Labour to issue the flash news of the parliamentary group’s decision at 4:05 pm, just ten minutes before a Department of Information press release announced the decision at 4:15 pm.
Sources from the Office of the Prime Minister sources told MaltaToday that Gonzi was furious at yet another leak from within the parliamentary group.
Wednesday’s parliamentary meeting was not attended by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, the controversial backbencher who fell out of favour with his party over the Mistra scandal in the last election.
The backbencher launched his own personal crusade against the EU-funded project to house the Cathedral’s Goblin tapestries in an underground museum, but PN sources say his opposition stems from his antagonism towards Richard Cachia Caruana. Cachia Caruana, the permanent representative to the EU, is both a member of the Cabinet as well as the PN’s strategy group, as well as a member of the Co-Cathedral Foundation’s board.
The same sources say Pullicino Orlando blames Cachia Caruana for being ostracised from the party after being exposed to have rented his land in the picturesque Mistra for the construction of a discotheque, just weeks before the March 2008 election.
While the PN spin machine did its best to keep the story from coming out in the open, by the time Labour had pounced on the Mistra story it was far too late to fully exploit the magnitude of the scandal, in which the avowed green politician Pullicino Orlando was set to reap €1.9 million over a 15-year lease for the land, which was outside development zones.
Despite his repeated denials and contradictory statements, Pullicino Orlando managed to get elected from two districts, but most of his constituents were still unaware of the facts behind the Mistra case.
And in the most curious of developments, Labour have developed a tame stance towards Pullicino Orlando – avoiding any sort of reference to the Mistra scandal which they first exposed during the election.
While Gonzi’s volte-face comes across as a direct snub for Richard Cachia Caruana, who actively supported this project, it could also mean that his promotion to become the next European Commissioner is sealed.
Gonzi, never one to appear as a prisoner of the media or Labour, reacted to MaltaToday’s story on Cachia Caruana’s forthcoming appointment last Sunday by declaring: “I take decisions, I am the Prime Minister, I am the government.”

Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below.
Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.