A ‘doubly-defiant’ Pullicino Orlando

PN MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has snubbed Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and his Parliamentary group for the second time running in a few months, and presented parliament with a jointly-signed private members’ bill in tandem with Labour MP Evarist Bartolo, calling for the introduction of divorce.

The new bill supercedes the original ‘bolt out of the blue’ motion presented last July by Pullicino Orlando, prompting the PM to summon his parliamentary group to seek order on his benches.

Yesterday’s joint-motion technically strengthens the original proposal by Pullicino Orlando by transposing it in context to Maltese law, but it now also carries the signature of a Labour MP which has raised eyebrows at Castille.

While Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando argued that the new motion co-signed with IVA Movemnet co-founder and PL MP Evarist Bartolo was the “next natural step forward,” a spokesman for Castille told this paper last night that the Prime Minister didn’t know anything about the new bill.

PN Parliamentary Group whip David Agius stressed that he too never knew anything about the bill, and added that he “couldn’t understand why the MP didn’t inform his PM or his colleagues when he knew of the reactions last time he presented the bill.” David Agius refused to comment further.