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After divorce, Gonzi faces his next test on honoraria motion
Prominent Nationalist members of parliament have told Lawrence Gonzi that he should step down as PN leader and Prime Minister.
Nationalist backbenchers have confronted the Prime Minister and faced him with the prospect that his position may no longer be tenable.
“The whole referendum debacle has been mishandled. Lawrence has no sense of leadership. We will face a landslide defeat at the polls if something radical is not done now,” one backbencher has told MaltaToday.
Asked who could replace Lawrence Gonzi, the parliamentarian said: “It is not important. There are various potential quality leaders such as Beppe Fenech Adami and Mario de Marco, but the most important thing is for us to change. Leaders are not always found. Some are created.”
After the vote on divorce bill – already the stuff controversy with so many MPs and ministers deciding to either abstain or vote against it – Gonzi will face the wrath of some his backbenchers again, this time on the honoraria motion moved by Joseph Muscat.
The decision to raise honoraria for ministers behind people’s back has created unbridled resentment for the Prime Minister and the PN. Gonzi is expected to lose this motion, which will not only humiliate him further but put him under added pressure to step down.
Many MPs are also blaming the Prime Minister’s personal assistant Edgar Galea Curmi for what they termed is an “extreme politics of exclusion” that characterised Gonzi’s so called “new way of doing politics.”
“Edgar is Gonzi’s biggest problem. He is in permanent siege mentality and this makes it more difficult for the Prime Minister to reach out and make the right decision. They are only interested in protecting the Prime Minister not about governing the country,” the MP said.
Party polls show that if the PN was to go for an election now, the party would face a landslide defeat.
A former president of the Catholic Action, Lawrence Gonzi put much store in seeing that divorce does not get introduced under watch by putting the decision to referendum. Even the anti-divorce MPs inside the House of Representatives have blamed Gonzi for putting the matter to the electorate for decision, instead of relying on MPs to turn the divorce bill down.
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Dan qed jiftah idejh biex jurina kemm kien kbir li wahlilna kemm ilu fil-gvern jew?
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Fejn hi l-kuxjenza ta' Gonzi?
https://mazzun.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/fejn-hi-l-kuxjenza-ta-gonzi/
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Alla hares ma jkunx hawn bidla wara 25sena ta l-istess gvern. Hemm bahar jaqsam bejn Joseph Muscat u Lawrence Gonzi. Gonzi ha il €500 zieda u Joseph Muscat ghax iddikjara li iz zieda tieghu ha jtija lil fqar ma tahilux il Gvern ta GonziPn. Il kuxjenza ghad divorzju biss juzaha Gonzi ,Austin Gatt u Tonio Fenech! Ma nafx kif ma jisthiex jerga johrog ghal l-ellezzjoni. Nhar is-Sibt il membri fil-parlament ghandhom decizjoni strorika, jew jivvutaw mal poplu biex il ministri u l-Prim Ministru ma jiehdux iz zieda ta’ Eur500 fil- gimgha jew japprovaw din il moqzizata min fuqna! Nhar Is Sibt huwa vera test tal Kuxjenza tal MPs Nazzjonalisti! Xtahsbu hbieb il backbenchers tal Pn ghandhom kuxjenza Socjali?
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@james.grech
You think he doesn't wish to resign? I am sure than in his heart of hearts he wants to but he cannot. Gonzi is not free...but a free slave he is.
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@vcas1
So if he is so incapable of keeping his team in order and he is in such a situation, he should check his conscience and take it upon himself to resign. In that way, at least he will be saving us from further blunder. Unless that is he has the balls to do it.
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After so many bad decisions, things are getting back to Dr Gonzi and co. It was a bad decision to give themselves a raise in the way that they gave it. It was a bad decision to lure the party into taking a No position over divorce. The party is in a mess, the government is in a mess. I wonder who had the brilliant idea to suggest the raise in the first place, and whose idea it was to keep it a secret? People should really open their eyes. If it were not for someone from the opposition asking a legitimate question, we would most probably never have found out about this raise. And then they want to pose as paladins of truth and hide after their conscience. What a farce has this turned out to be. The members of cabinet should all resign in block, if they really have a conscience.
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Leader Konsistenti huwa dak il bniedem li fil-mument tal-prova ma jibzax jiehu pozizzjoni minkejja li jista' jitlef biha. Int trid taghmel li hu sewwa u tiddikkjara l-principji tieghek lin-nies inkella tfalli. Ma tridx tuza l-politika ghar-rebh tal-voti . Hbieb u huti nazzjonalisti uzaw largumenti taghkom ghas-sewwa sabiex in-nies ikunu jafu fejn huma qeghdin u mhux blargumenti foloz. Ghax ftakru Is Sewwa jerbah zgur u in nies qeghdin jaraw min huwa konsistenti fl-argumenti.Tqisuwiex ga rbahtu l-elezzjoni generali ghax mhux hierga Mary Louise ghax naf fic cert li hawn minn qed jinterpreta hekk. JALLA ma jkun hemm hadd li jmur kontra rieda tal- maggorraza ghax ghalhekk nghixu go pajjiz demokratiku izda kollox possibli f'dan il pajjiz! Nhar is-Sibt il membri fil-parlament ghandhom decizjoni strorika, jew jivvutaw mal poplu biex il ministri u l-Prim Ministru ma jiehdux iz zieda ta’ Eur500 fil- gimgha jew japprovaw din il moqzizata min fuqna! Nhar Is Sibt huwa vera test tal Kuxjenza tal MPs Nazzjonalisti!
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You see guys...wanting Gonzi to step down is nothing else but wishful thinking...cos the problem is not Gonzi but those around him. There are circles and inner circles of friends of friends who have got it too good at the moment. And they keep the guy in post, more of a symbol than a leader, cos it would mean huge financial losses for them like getting tenders, contracts and what not. So dream on..Gonzi will remain there like a helpless organism while viruses eat him from the inside.
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Tutti i Gonzipn fuori dal partito; Non c'e' piu spazio per i dinosauri.
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De Marco will be a better leader. He is a realist and I am sure that he is more approachable that anyone who carries the surname of Fenech Adami. God, that's all the PN needs - an uncompromising politician who puts his morals before the 'common good'. We don't hear much about the common good nowadays ... only about one's conscience. Fancy a politician having a conscience!!! What next? Throw the dinosaurs out of parliament, I say.
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Debacle is not the word. Forget about good government and good leadership. He single-handedly confirmed that the Catholic Church in Malta (as it presents itself to the people) now attracts only the support of a minority of the population. As they repeated ad nauseam, you cannot be an a la carte catholic. The church hierarchy should also go. Elect Montebello as archbishop! He will stick it up the Curia.
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Yes for sure. The PN loss will be huge whether he resigns or not. The damage has been done! He should resign though. He has been a disaster from the start.
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No, Beppe first said that he will not vote. Then, when he realised that the vote may not passed, he said that he may abstain. So much for his conscience. At least, his father is a hypocrite but a consistent one.
https://mazzun.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/il-megpresidente-e-uno-stronzo/
Helenio Galea •
Beppe cannot be new leader. He openly said he will not vote for the will of the majority.
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M'ghandkom'x ghaggla biex tibdluh min jaf kemm tlifna voti diga.
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The motion will somehow not get through. There is too much at stake for the PN and its contributors to come down from power. So, we would see again a play of chess - those who openly criticised Gonzi for this scandalous increase will bring one lame excuse after the other to oppose the motion. One can easily name Jean Pierre Farrugia who is a classical case of 'empty vessels make most sound'.
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The bottom line with the Gonzi clique is that the dominant and only important thing for them was to remain in power. The Gonzi government changes to election mode immediately after an election, five years away. So how could they have a lucid view of how to govern if all that they care for are votes? Gonzi should have clearly explained this on his being placed (by EFA) in the PM's seat that this was his way of doing politics. Nice way indeed. Pocket first, party second, clique third, friends of friends fourth, and people's welfare last, if there remains anything to hand out.
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As I see it, Gonzi was afraid to put the divorce bill to the house because the chances of him loosing were too large.
So, some ill informed advisor came up with the idea to put divorce to a referendum because after all Malta is more than 90% Catholic, and with a push from the church and a push from the PN they calculated that the changes of them loosing a referendum were very small.
However, they did not put into the formula the fact that they are so arrogant that they have lost all track of what the Maltese people really want, and that they are viewing everything from inside a cocoon of their own making.
Their calculations were never so wrong and they lost.
Now, how can a democratic party ignore the will of the people with the excuse that each representative has a conscience?
Again, their calculations are wrong because they are viewing a much-distorted picture and I challenge them to ask any Maltese if it is possible for a PN representative to have a conscience.
These are two totally different things and even the most ignorant person in Malta knows that it is IMPOSSIBLE for a PN representative to have a conscience. It is like oil and water, you can mix and mix, but after a short time everything is back as it was.
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fuq l-honoraria gonzi il kuxjenza ma tmissux.
Divorce - Concience Yes, Democracy No
Honoraria - Concience No, Pocket Yes
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And Gonzi's dear old friend is nowhere to be seen!
http://mazzun.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/il-megpresidente-e-uno-stronzo/
Maureen Attard •
Yes I think that Gonzi must step down and give a chance to new faces with much needed new democratic politics. So as we say in maltese, tkunx supperv, and step down soon.
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Reading well the Times of Malta yesterday the article by EFA, one realise that this was not about divorce , but about leadership. " years ago a friend in the PN executive told me that we will see a big fight between the DeMarco's and Fenech Adami's camps , each one wants his son to be the next PN Leader. Personally I favour Mario, he is inteligent, like his father, Smart like his mother, he is only missing 2 things, the famous smile which dominated Prof.DeMarco's face and his friendly with everyone. I think that Mario DeMarco will be a good Prim Minister, and Dr Gonzi knows this well. The EFA family needs to give Malta a good break, a free us from the klikka.
