‘I’ve always championed Constitutional reform’ - Franco Debono

Constitutional reform dominated this morning's meeting between President George Abela and Speaker Anglu Farrugia, with the President of the Republic calling for a referendum.

While insisting that "nothing" should hinder the Constitutional reform process, Abela called for unity and said that the process should include the widest participation of Maltese society.

Talking to MaltaToday, former Nationalist MP Franco Debono said: "I am very sure the President was not referring to my role as Constitutional Convention coordinator because I have been consistently  championing for Constitutional reform for a very long time."

In his last Parliamentary address, before voting against the PN government in December 2012, Debono, had explained that his decision to vote against the Nationalist administration was motivated by the government's failure to carry out the necessary Constitutional reforms.

The Law Commissioner, who in the previous legislature called for institutional and Constitutional reforms from his very first speech in Parliament in 2008, said that prior to the political turmoil which characterised the latter years of the previous PN administration, he had met President Abela to discuss Constitutional reform.

"I remember calling on the President at the San Anton Palace to discuss Constitutional reform because back then I felt that he was the only person who could listen to my concerns. I had explained to the President that the government had completely ignored my calls for Constitutional reform and urged him to initiate the process," Debono said.

He also explained that he had actively championed the cause, addressing last year's President's Forum on Constitutional reform and proposing a number of laws, including the party financing bill and the justice reform motion, both shelved by the previous government.

During this morning's meeting with the Speaker of the House, the President also explained that the third President's Forum will be held next month, with former Speaker Michael Frendo, former European Court Judge Giovanni Bonello, dean of the faculty of law Kevin Aquilina and chief justice emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino addressing the meeting. 

Debono said that he was formally invited to the forum, which has entered its third edition, by the President and would be addressing the meeting.

One of the new Labour government's first appointments upon being elected to office in March was that of former Nationalist MP Franco Debono as Law Commissioner and Constitutional Convention coordinator.

This appointment followed the Labour Party's electoral pledge to hold a Constitutional convention intending to give birth to what Prime Minister Joseph Muscat described as a "Second Republic".

Labour's pledge includes calls for a change in a number of areas such as the electoral law, the Broadcasting Authority, Parliament and Malta's neutrality status.

Debono's appointment received a negative reaction by the Nationalist Party who have gone as far as threathing to withdraw from the Constitutional Convention.

Describing the appointment as "divisive" the PN's outgoing administration said that the appointment "does not auger well for such an important process which needs to be led with serenity and seriousness."

The PN added that political good judgment demands that such an important process demanded efforts to seek national consensus and "unity."