Magistrate was sop to Speaker after Abela’s nomination

The magisterial nomination of Caroline Farrugia Frendo, the daughter of Speaker Anglu Farrugia, is being interpreted as a sop to her father after he had made it clear to his close associates that he was interested in being nominated by the government to be a member of the European Court of Auditors.

The nomination of 33-year-old Farrugia Frendo, announced two months short of the necessary seven-year practice requisite to be eligible for the post of magistrate, came just days after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat picked the deputy leader for party affairs, Toni Abela, for the Luxembourg posting.

The €240,000-a-year job comes with a six-year tenure that makes this European ‘kick upstairs’ one of the most sought after by those who have the Prime Minister’s ear.

But Farrugia Frendo’s nomination, controversial for the fact that the young lawyer has not yet completed the minimum seven years’ practice experience since taking her oath in March 2009, has prompted a barrage of criticism from the Opposition leader, who on Saturday called for her nomination to be withdrawn.

“Anglu Farrugia was saddened and displeased that he was not even considered for the post of Auditor,” a highly placed source in the Speaker’s office told this newspaper.

Farrugia was unceremoniously asked to step aside in December 2012 – on the eve of a general election – and make way for a new deputy leader, after a disastrous TV performance against his Nationalist counterpart, then PN deputy leader Simon Busuttil.

His appointment in 2013 as Speaker was then seen as a sop for Muscat’s hard-nosed decision to remove Farrugia, ostensibly over controversial remarks he passed on a court decision.

The nomination of Farrugia’s daughter to a post that grants her security of tenure for 32 years has only raised questions over the Labour administration’s style in keeping harmonious relations among the top brass.

Another nominee for magistrate, Ingrid Zammit Young, turned down the post this week after the Commission for the Administration of Justice said she was constitutionally ineligible to be magistrate, having only recently been chairperson of the Employment Commission. Her father, Godwin Young, is a Labour canvasser hailing from Marsaskala – a factor that will not go unnoticed among critics of Labour’s choices for the judiciary.