PN stalls approval of Franco Debono’s rival candidates
Karl Stagno-Navarra
Approval for three prospective candidates for the Nationalist Party has been put on hold by the party’s executive, in a precautionary move not to anger backbencher Franco Debono.
The approval for candidates on Debono’s fifth district stronghold – architect Anthony Bezzina, businessman Hermann Schiavone, and Austin Gatt’s head of secretariat Manwel Delia – was “frozen” last September, and removed from the PN executive’s agenda.
While the candidates have been encouraged by the PN to continue campaigning in the fifth district – the electoral battleground which saw Debono oust heavyweight Louis Galea in 2008 – PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier has reportedly urged the candidates to be “prudent” and to “not upset” Franco Debono.
Debono shocked the PN last week when he absented himself during a parliamentary vote, to vote down an amendment moved by the Opposition on the creation of two parliamentary select committees, one of which he is to chair.
His unexpected absence forced Speaker Louis Galea to use his casting vote to defeat the amendment – which ironically proposed him as a chair for the committees.
But Debono’s shock move embarrassed the government, and prompted a personal meeting at his Ghaxaq residence by the Prime Minister, who was accompanied by his wife.
While no member from the PN executive was forthcoming in giving details about the ‘deleted’ item for the approval of the three candidates, sources explained that the decision was taken a few days after a serious row at the PN’s Zurrieq club, during a social event organised on the occasion of the feast of St Catherine back in the first week of September.
MaltaToday is informed that Hermann Schiavone and Anthony Bezzina were “politely” asked to leave the premises, after Franco Debono insisted with the local PN committee that the “unapproved candidates” should not be present for the activity.
Manwel Mallia was not present on that day.
The day after, Debono reportedly threw a tantrum at the PN headquarters while Bezzina and Schiavone were up in arms claiming outright discrimination in their regard.
In the end, the candidates’ approval was removed from the agenda of the PN executive that was expected to meet in the following days.
News of this ‘mitigation’ measure echoes an invitation extended by the Prime Minister to Debono to accompany him to the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, in a bid to placate the backbencher.
MaltaToday is also informed that Lawrence Gonzi has turned down an invitation made to him last Sunday morning, to attend a Christmas reception at Qrendi’s PN club for the party’s fifth electoral district committees.
Franco Debono did not attend that party, while all district candidates have been asked not to engage with him over last week’s events.
The media frenzy caused by Debono’s behaviour in the past week has also led PN activists loyal to Speaker Louis Galea to explore ways of chipping away at Debono’s power base.
Debono’s 2,000 first-preference votes back in the 2008 general election led to former minister Louis Galea losing his electoral seat.
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