Godfrey Farrugia: 'PN and PD will work side by side for the good of the country'

The former Labour whip warned Labour Party supporters that if the party remained in power, they would eventually suffer the consequences of corruption

Godfrey Farrugia
Godfrey Farrugia

Partit Demokratiku candidate and former Labour Whip Godfrey Farrugia has said that, if elected to power, the Forza Nazzjonali coalition would act in the interest of the country and would seek consensus in the way it governed.

Speaking at the PN meeting in his hometown of Haz-Zebbug, Farrugia said he was always thought to choose Malta and to always be on the right side of history.

He said that when he was the independent mayor of Haz-Zebbug, he had shown that it was possible to work across party lines for the good of society as would Forza Nazzjonali.

“We will work side by side for the good of our country,” he said.

Farrugia said that before the general election was called, he had written a letter to the Prime Minister, a man he said he had worked with respected, in the hope that the Labour Party in government could use the last year of legislature to “change direction”.

“Instead we chose the road of tarnishing our country’s name,” said Farrugia. “In Castille there is Keith Schembri, a man who has forgotten what the national interest is, and only wants to cover his tracks, so much so that an early election was called.”

He argued that those running the Labour Party believed that being a gentleman and quiet man was a sign of weakness, insisting this was not the case. 

Farrugia underscored his belief that the whole point of politics was to do good.

“We have reached a point where we must all ask ourselves, what is the point of politics,” said Farrugia. “Are we embracing the values that define us as a society? We know what the Labour Party’s leadership has chosen.”

He said that his choice to join the democratic party had nothing to do with the fact that it was led by his party and criticised, those who had made sexist remarks about him and his partner Marlene Farrugia.

“Had she been the man and I the woman would they have said the same things?” asked Farrugia.

He said Marlene Farrugia had managed to create a movement that looks out for the national interest against all imaginable odds.

“This was only possible because in Simon Busuttil she found a person who also believes that the right politics for our country is that of consensus, not division,” he said.

Ultimately said Farrugia, he had decided to join the coalition because he had followed his conscience and assured all Labourites that they should not fear a Forza Nazzjonali.

He insisted that those who voted for the Labour Party could not be blamed, and that the party’s manifesto had its roots in good governance but had been betrayed by those leading the party.

Speaking directly to those who had supported Labour, Farrugia stressed that they had nothing to fear and that him and Marlene Farrugia would be protecting them.

“You should be worried if the Labour Party remains in power because with corruption, the weaker suffer.”