MPs supported counter-motion to fend off early elections

Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has hinted that he would have been used as a scapegoat for Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to call early elections, had he voted with the Opposition on its motion of censure against the government over the increased honoraria paid to Cabinet ministers.

Fresh from his victorious campaign to introduce a divorce bill – which law Gonzi committed his party to take an official stand against – Pullicino Orlando posted on his Facebook wall a message indicating that he would have prompted early elections had he voted with Labour.

Reacting to a public Facebook message which asked him why he had not “applied his conscience” when he voted with government on a counter-motion to defeat Labour’s honoraria motion, Pullicino Orlando replied that he would “not let anyone use me as an excuse to call an early election. My sentiments were very clearly expressed.” (See picture below)

Pullicino Orlando – a critic of the increased honoraria paid to ministers – refused to tell MaltaToday if he was informed of early elections should he have voted with the Opposition. “I have nothing more to add to the Facebook post,” he said.

Two other critics of the so-called ‘double-salary’, Jesmond Mugliett and Jean-Pierre Farrugia, also voted against the Labour motion. Mugliett made it a point to declare he was sending out a message of stability at a time when parliament is about to legislate divorce.

Pullicino Orlando’s Facebook post however substantiates rumours of the crisis Lawrence Gonzi faced on the honorarium saga, suggesting that the PM had to rein in MPs toying with the idea of voting with the Opposition. The motion called for the retraction of the hiked-up MPs' honoraria that were paid to ministers.

Party sources told this newspaper last week that Gonzi’s closest ministers were informed he would call early elections if his MPs did not support him, and the message soon trickled down to the rest of the backbench.

At the same time, Gonzi still faces a decision on how to vote on a divorce bill that won the backing of 53% of the electorate in a referendum. His predecessor Eddie Fenech Adami said he expects the PN to stick to its values and vote against the bill.

So far Gonzi has not declared his vote, and many within the PN are suggesting that the Prime Minister is being held hostage to the former PN leader’s pressure. Some observers have floated the suggestion that Fenech Adami would rather see his party call early elections in a bid to block the divorce bill from being approved in parliament by a Nationalist administration.

Shortly after an interview given by Fenech Adami on Saturday, in which he said MPs should vote no on the divorce bill because the divorce referendum is consultative, the PN’s youth section (MZPN) came out with a statement urging parliament to respect the people’s will as expressed in the result, revealing an unprecedented split between the liberal and confessional factions within the PN.

Even the PN’s information director, Frank Psaila, wrote in The Times saying the PN still had the mettle to keep its liberal faction within the party.