Franco Debono: ‘After MaltaToday survey, I’m obliged to attend PN general council’

Former Nationalist MP Franco Debono will attend the PN’s general council today after a 12-year absence from active politics, saying he feels “obliged” to do so.

Debono took to Facebook on Sunday morning to react to MaltaToday’s survey among PN members, which put him as the third choice for party leader with 5.5%. The survey was carried out over the past days among PN members.

Gozitan MP Alex Borg came out on top with 23.2%, followed by former leader Adrian Delia with 11.2%. However, more than 40% of PN members remain undecided.

The MaltaToday survey results confirm an internal PN survey that had been leaked to Times of Malta last week.

“The survey result has to be taken in context of my 12-year absence from the PN,” Debono told his Facebook followers, adding he was the only person featuring in the survey, who was not a sitting MP.

“Out of respect to those members who have shown trust in me, I am obliged to attend this morning’s PN general council because I believe it is important for the country to have a strong Opposition,” Debono said.

A former MP, who fell out with his own party, Debono had voted against the last budget of the Gonzi administration in 2012, effectively bringing down the government. Debono had spent almost five years at loggerheads with his own party in government over what he claimed were reforms that kept being delayed.

Debono had, at the time, proposed a wide-ranging private member’s bill with reforms to overhaul the justice and home affairs sectors, and aspects of governance that required constitutional changes. Most significantly he had campaigned hard for the introduction of the right to be assisted by a lawyer during police interrogations, something the PN government kept postponing until it was introduced by the incoming Labour government in 2013. He was also the mastermind behind the law regulating party financing, which the PN government had slept on, only to be introduced by Labour a few years later.

Despite his estrangement from the party, Debono remained a member of the PN and has consistently used his social media platforms to comment on current affairs.

Buoyed by the survey results, over the past days he has been meeting groups of tesserati, exploring a potential bid for the leadership after Bernard Grech’s resignation earlier this month.

Today’s general council formally kicks off the leadership race process.