Prime Minister faces eventful week as motions could determine fate of his government

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's speech at Santa Venera yesterday was a clear stand that he will steam ahead with the Budget for mid-November, even though the events of this week are likely to give a country an idea of whether it will be facing elections earlier than usual.

So far, Gonzi has not given any inkling of whether he could tie a motion of no-confidence against transport minister Austin Gatt, filed by Nationalist MP Franco Debono, to a vote of confidence in government.

It now remains to be seen how independent MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and PN backbencher Franco Debono - and perhaps even Nationalist MP and former minister Jesmond Mugliett - will react to a motion in which Gonzi puts his government at stake.

With the Opposition pushing forward two adjournment motions, the subject of which will probably be dealt with today in the House, the onus is now on Speaker Michael Frendo to set a date for the debate of the two motions.

Effectively, government's future now hinges on Frendo's decision.

The two procedural motions by the Opposition effectively call on the Speaker of the House to adjourn the parliamentary sitting so that debate on each motion - one on Labour's call to repeal the privatisation process for public car parks (which the government has already suspended), and Debono's no-confidence motion against Gatt - starts on the next day of business.

The adjournment motion is intended to fix a time for the debate.

Frendo has declined to comment on whether he had reached a decision. "I have no comment to make," he politely replied when asked whether he will be communicating his decision tomorrow evening in parliament.

MaltaToday is informed that the Speaker has also turned to Constitutional lawyer Ian Refalo for advice on how to tackle the current situation.

Before a 2008 resolution was approved in parliament, a standing order had provided for every other Thursday to be dedicated to private business - that is, when MPs could present their motions and their private member's bill. But the resolution had resolved that the House would meet every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The resolution however provides for other days if an adjournment motion is presented.

Frendo has in the past called for a serious revision of the standing orders of parliament, in a bid to shed the impression of a democratic forum where the "winner takes all".

However, on Saturday Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando said he "won't give any preferences" as to whether parliament should debate two crucial motions before or after government presents its Budget for 2013, insisting that he will leave the procedure in the Speaker's hands.

"It's up to the Speaker to decide procedural matters," Pullicino Orlando told MaltaToday. "From my end, I am satisfied to see government treating the Embryo Protection Bill and the Cohabitation Bill as an urgent matter and have thus pushed it high on the parliament's agenda."

He said that both bills have been in the pipeline for years. "I applaud government for having suspended the botched privatisation of the car parks after consulting with me and other MPs. It was clear that the process had been carried out in the most arrogant and irregular of ways."

He added that deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg had now also given his word that no other decision on the privatisation will take place before parliament concludes its debate. "And this, for me, is satisfactory," Pullicino Orlando said.

Government - with Borg arguing that now that the tendering process has been suspended, claims of urgency no longer hold - has proposed 12 November as the date for the motion. Failing to reach a compromise, Labour went on to file two motions of adjournment calling for the immediate debate of both the car parks motion and Debono's motion.

Debating the two motions before the Budget would lead to the resignation of Austin Gatt as a member of the Cabinet, but probably guarantee that the government's Budget for next year is approved in parliament.

If the two motions are pushed to after the Budget - and Gatt is still a member of the Cabinet and Debono doesn't backtrack on his current stand - it would see the maverick MP voting against the Budget, leaving the Prime Minister no other option but to call elections.

Pullicino Orlando said that he had already suggested for Austin Gatt to resign out of his own will: "It is clear that Franco Debono's problem lies with Gatt's presence in the Cabinet. Gatt asking me to abdicate my seat in parliament because of what I suggested is puerile and reflects a lacklustre line of reasoning."

Franco Debono, in comments to MaltaToday, has refuted suggestions that government would use him as its scapegoat, forcing early elections by retaining Gatt's presence in the Cabinet leading to a Debono vote against the Budget.

"They are not even in a position to find a scapegoat. The state of government today is entirely their fault. I have been warning the Prime Minister about my decision for three months," he said.

Debono added that the Transport Minister had been responsible for a number of fiascos, and therefore his resignation call was justifiable.

"The Prime Minister is a gambler and he would be in no position of accusing me of having brought down government."

Debono added that parliament has now experienced "a revolution" where it had regained its supremacy.