Despite lone critics, Gonzi has PN majority secured
Muscat’s motion on Delimara not expected to entice PN’s dissenting backbenchers
Karl Stagno-Navarra
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi will have the parliamentary majority required tomorrow to defeat a motion moved by Labour leader Joseph Muscat on the Delimara power station extension.
Labour insiders have remarked that Muscat’s attempt to bring out Nationalist dissenters on the controversial 144MW extension is not likely to bear any fruit, as Gonzi appears to have closed ranks in his fractious backbench – in the process, throwing the Opposition leader’s strategy into disarray.
Labour’s constant accusations of corruption - that in a way were already thwarted by the Auditor General, who stopped short of such an overt declaration in his detailed report into the contract awarded to Danish BWSC - had created a sense of expectancy among the party faithful. But while Muscat himself appears to have pinned his hopes on derailing the project, his entire political gamble now looks likely to founder.
The Gudja MP Franco Debono – now a parliamentary assistant inside the Office of the Prime Minister – is so far the only backbencher who will speak among a list of three senior ministers, a parliamentary secretary and the Prime Minister himself.
Debono, who last December shocked parliament by purposely missing a vote in protest over a number of political issues – one of them being the environmental neglect of his constituency, which is overshadowed by the Delimara power station – will reportedly ‘criticise’ the choice of heavy fuel oil (HFO) technology over natural gas turbines, but will ultimately vote against the PL motion.
Former energy minister Ninu Zammit, and former roads minister Jesmond Mugliett, are also expected to vote against the Labour motion, notwithstanding their known positions against the controversial €200 million contract awarding to Danish firm BWSC, recently the subject of a report by the Auditor General.
Even Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, a dissenter who has publicly criticised some of his party’s positions as well as the choice of HFO for the new power station, can be expected to toe the party line.
Along with Debono and another outspoken rebel, the Sliema MP Robert Arrigo, Pullicino Orlando – once dubbed a member of the ‘gang of three’ – will be supportive of finance minister Tonio Fenech to whom he is twinned as parliamentary assistant.
Fenech was recently given responsibility of Enemalta, shortly before the Auditor General issued his verdict on the irregularities that pervaded the choice of BWSC’s technology under the stewardship of minister Austin Gatt.
PN whip David Agius yesterday said the parliamentary group was resolute in moving on and “respond to the country’s immediate energy needs”.
But his cautionary soundbite, telling MaltaToday that “no vote is for certain”, is more likely to be a foregone conclusion, with no sign of any surprises tomorrow.
Nazzjon spin While Agius will be studying the mood of MPs ahead of the vote, he will come across some disgruntlement among a few MPs who were surprisingly upstaged by Franco Debono in the main headline of Tuesday’s In-Nazzjon, their party organ.
The newspaper managed to use a PQ by Debono and answered by minister Tonio Fenech as their front-page article, by claiming that the minister and Enemalta had taken on board the MP’s suggestion to allow online access to the Marsaxlokk local council to emissions data.
The proposal had actually already been discussed in a PN parliamentary group meeting of the 21 April.
Nationalist MPs pointed out with MaltaToday that the PQ was “nothing but further appeasement towards Debono” given that it was the Prime Minister himself who told them of government’s intention to grant Marsaxlokk council access to the online emissions data – as reported in MaltaToday on 25 April.
The government’s line of defence in tomorrow’s sitting, that will drag on to 9pm, will be entrusted to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, and ministers Tonio Fenech, Austin Gatt and George Pullicino. Other speakers will be parliamentary secretary Mario de Marco and Franco Debono.
The debate will not be televised as requested by the Opposition, but will be transmitted live on radio.
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