Owen Bonnici: PN motion is yet another no-confidence vote in Speaker

Justice minister Owen Bonnici has said that he did not file a libel suit against shadow minister Jason Azzopardi, instead opting to ask the Speaker of the House to investigate, simply because the latter’s claims concerned comments he made in parliament, and should therefore have been investigated by the Speaker.

Bonnici was speaking at a press conference held in response to the Opposition putting forward a motion calling for the retraction of a Speaker's ruling that found Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi in breach of parliamentary privilege when he had tweeted that justice minister Owen Bonnici had lied to Parliament, a claim Bonnici is refuting. 

“I have been accused of lying under oath in parliament, a criminal offence, so I decided that I should use a parliamentary mechanism rather than going to court,” said Bonnici when pressed by journalists on whether he would be taking further legal action.

Bonnici said that since 1987, there have been 16 no-confidence votes in the speaker, with a quarter coming in the last legislature. This, he said, was symptomatic of the most negative Opposition in history.  

He argued that whenever one of the country’s institutions rules in favour of the opposition, the PN has no problem referring to the legitimacy of the institution, however when the ruling is against, they attack the institution.

Bonnici said that given the speakers ruling, he would have expected Azzopardi to take back his claims but instead, the opposition was insisting on taking the matter further.

“It’s like having a footballer who is booked for committing a foul during a match, and attacks the referee rather than accepting his decision. In this case, we also have the coach who has stepped onto the pitch and started to attack the referee as well,” said Bonnici.