Calls for quorum force ministers out of Cabinet meeting

Tuesday morning's parliamentary sitting was twice suspended after Opposition whip Davis Agius called for a quorum while Nationalist MPs debated the controversial golden passport scheme.

The Individual Investor Programme that will sell Maltese citizenship at €650,000 is expected to reap €15 million in revenues for the home affairs ministry, and another €15 million that will be poured into a national development fund.

With only home affairs minister Manuel Mallia present on the government's benches, David Agius called for a quorum, which requires at least 15 MPs from both sides of the House to be present.

With only Opposition leader Simon Busuttil and a handful of other Nationalist MPs present, the sitting was suspended. After a few minutes the government ministers returned, only to go back to the Cabinet meeting that is being held in the Prime Minister's office a minute after the sitting restarted.

Nationalist MP Frederick Azzopardi, who had restarted his address, was abruptly stopped again as the Opposition whip asked for another quorum.

"Since no cameras are in place in the House, I must explain what just happened. The government MPs walked out only seconds after entering the chamber. What a shame Mr Speaker," Agius said.

Soon after the session restarted again, with government MPs taunting Azzopardi for being stopped twice during his address by his own whip, Speaker Anglu Farrugia intervened to calm down the situation.

Earlier on, citing Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna's comments posted on Twitter, Nationalist MP Charlo Bonnici said that the government's controversial plans to sell citizenship to foreigners for €650,000 was being opposed by the majority of Maltese citizens.

"It is clear that the scheme being proposed by the government has not been accepted by the people and has not gone down well with the majority of people as seen on social media, newspapers and other public reactions," Bonnici said.

On Sunday, Bishop Charles Scicluna posed a number of questions to all MPs in a tweet which made it clear that he was against the proposed law. "Do we really need to put Maltese citizenship on sale? Is citizenship a bond or a commodity? What else is on sale?" the bishop asked.

Insisting that the majority of Maltese citizens were against the citizenship scheme, Charlo Bonnici said that the government was "ignoring the people's concerns."

He added that the Opposition was opposed to the scheme which granted foreigners citizenship against a donation, stressing that citizenship should only be granted to persons who reside and have long-term investments in Malta.

The IIP (Individual Investment Programme) will sell Maltese citizenship to applicants and their dependants for €650,000 and the Opposition has made it clear that if the scheme is not amended, the scheme would be removed and citizenships revoked once the PN returns to power.

Bonnici also pointed out that Henley & Partners, the exclusive concessionaire for the Maltese government's citizenship programme, had a conflict of interest since it would be carrying out the due diligence on applicants while at the same time earning a commission on each application.

"How can a private company conduct a serious due diligence when it's in the company's interest to sell citizenships," he asked.