Marlene Farrugia says Labour was hijacked by people who sowed the seeds of death

Marlene Farrugia made an impassioned appeal in Parliament tonight for the Labour Party to cleanse itself from those who hijacked it and betrayed the people’s trust.

The former Labour MP said the party she once formed part of had been hijacked by “the people on the fourth floor”, who ended up hijacking the whole country.

The fourth floor refers to meetings that used to be held at Labour headquarters between Joseph Muscat and people from the business community. The phrase became infamous when Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia had spoken about these closed meetings, shortly after being asked to resign from deputy leader of the Labour Party weeks before the start of the 2013 electoral campaign.

Marlene Farrugia said that while Labour MPs and activists before 2013 were out on the streets to convince people to make the change for better governance, accountability and transparency, inside the party there were those who sowed the seeds of death.

She recalled how at the time, despite being the party's energy spokesperson, she was kept out of an internal committee on energy. "Today we know why... They sowed the seeds of death that led to a journalist being killed because she was investigating corruption in government,” Farrugia said.

She then turned her guns on Joseph Muscat and demanded to know why he continued to protect Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri when their Panama companies were outed.

“Why did he not stop it? Why did he allow them to go on? He had the choice to clean up matters three years ago and appoint serious people in their stead so the country could move on, but he did not.”

She insisted that if Joseph Muscat took the right decision at the appropriate time, Daphne Caruana Galizia would still be alive today.

“They did not only want to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia but they wanted to stifle freedom in this country,” Farrugia said, accusing the Prime Minister of allowing a climate of impunity to grow.

She criticised the Prime Minister’s decision to stay on when his closest aide was being questioned by the police.

“The Prime Minister tells us the institutions are working. If they are working, the Prime Minister should step aside and leave them to work,” she insisted.

Farrugia said the Maltese dream in 2013 was to have a government that would create opportunity for people to advance in life on their own steam. People believed in the promise of meritocracy, transparency and justice, she added.

“As a nation, we beat off many foreign enemies because we were united. Corruption is alien to us Maltese, it is also an enemy that we need to beat today by rising above partisan politics. Our country is not the mafia web it is being depicted,” Farrugia said as she urged people to continue protesting.

Edward Zammit Lewis: ‘Who can govern the country; Adrian Delia?’

In his intervention after Farrugia’s fiery speech, Equality Minister Edward Zammit Lewis acknowledged the country faced a serious situation and that the government had done mistakes.

However, Zammit Lewis recalled past pardons given by previous Nationalist administrations that were anything but transparent.

Edward Zammit Lewis

He insisted on knowing where were members of the Opposition at the time when Żeppi l-Ħafi was given a pardon by then prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami after a secret meeting in St Julians. “Indeed, where was Marlene Farrugia back then?”

Zammit Lewis’s outburst was interjected by Marlene Farrugia, who insisted that two wrongs did not make a right. “You can’t justify today’s wrongs by quoting the wrongs of the past,” she said.

Zammit Lewis insisted the institutions were working and would continue to do so.

“We have done mistakes. Marlene Farrugia is partially right, but we are the only government who can lead this country. Who can form a government; Adrian Delia? The people out there don’t want him,” he added, insisting that despite the problems, the country had done well economically.

He then appealed for calm among Labourites, insisting that the government will continue in office.