Opposition walks out of parliament in protest after Speaker rejects urgent Air Malta debate

Opposition MPs walked out of parliament on Tuesday after Speaker Anġlu Farrugia ruled against an urgent debate on Air Malta’s future.

The request for a debate without a vote was made by Opposition leader Bernard Grech in the wake of comments made by Air Malta executive chair David Curmi that the airline will be replaced by year’s end.

In the absence of government’s agreement for an urgent debate, the Speaker briefly suspended the sitting to deliberate on the request.

He returned with a ruling that acknowledged the importance of the debate but not its urgency in light of Finance Minister Clyde Caruana’s earlier statement that talks with the European Commission were still ongoing and he would give parliament all the details when these concluded.

Farrugia’s ruling was the second in as many days that rejected the Opposition’s request for urgent debates. On Monday, the Speaker ruled against an urgent debate requested by Bernard Grech on the need of a public inquiry into the tragic death of Jean Paul Sofia.

As soon as Farrugia read out his ruling on Tuesday, Grech said the Opposition could not continue participating in parliament and the Nationalist MPs stood up and walked out.

Parliament then proceeded to continue the Second Reading debate on amendments to the domestic violence law with only government speakers taking the floor.

In a reaction to the Opposition’s walk-out, the Labour Party accused the Opposition leader of turning issues of national importance into a “partisan political game”.

“When he speaks about domestic violence and how to fight it, from now on, Bernard Grech has to recall that he boycotted parliament when it was debating a law on the subject,” the PL said.

Last month, the Opposition walked out of parliament and boycotted a vote condemning the Steward hospitals deal during a debate on a motion it had put forward in the wake of a court ruling that annulled the contract. The Opposition protested when the Speaker allowed government to amend the motion outside its allotted time.

Air Malta

On Tuesday morning, Air Malta’s chief was quoted by Times of Malta saying that the national airline will be replaced by December, with the company set to lay off its 300 employees.

Curmi suggested that talks with the European Commission to secure an injection of funds by government had failed and the only option left was the airline’s closure and its replacement with a new State-owned company.

However, in comments to TVM in the afternoon, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana insisted that talks with Brussels had not yet been wrapped up. He refrained from confirming Air Malta’s closure, adding that he would explain everything to parliament once talks with the European Commission were over.

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