[WATCH] Michael Falzon tries to flip the Ġaħan script in parliamentary tit-for-tat with Claudette Buttigieg

Labour minister Michael Falzon and Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg crossed swords on Monday over a parliamentary question dealing with a civil servant's code of conduct in their private life.

In the first parliamentary question of the legislature, Buttigieg asked whether it was good conduct that a civil servant, serving as director of services to vulnerable children and families, had taken leave from work to participate in a minister's electoral campaign. 

Falzon, as Family and Social Welfare Minister, said that the civil servant in question was of good standing in her role and had always worked diligently in her position.

However, he accidentally let slip that the civil servant in question is a minister's partner.

"We're talking about what a person did in their leave time - the only difference is that they are the partner of a minister," he said. "My work is not to investigate what all my employees do during their leave."

Falzon went on to criticise Buttigieg for resorting to personal attacks against a minister's partner in the first parliamentary question of the session.

But Buttigieg pointed out that she never bothered with whether this civil servant is a minister's partner. "It was not my argument. Only in the minister's response was it revealed that this person happened to be the partner of a minister."

Falzon quickly rebutted, saying it was "obvious" that she was referring to this minister's partner. 

"It's true that some people say that Maltese people are 'ġaħan' (idiots) and will remain ġaħan, they aren't so idiotic to not realise who you're talking about," he said.

While Falzon was referring to a tweet by lawyer Andrew Borg Cardona after Labour's electoral win, PN MPs were quick to point out that Labour MP Edward Zammit Lewis had indeed referred to Maltese - specifically Labour voters - as "Ġaħan" in a text message to Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech.

Borg Cardona's tweet right after Labour secured a historic electoral win last March