Marlene Farrugia and Godfrey Farrugia would support a motion of no confidence in the Leader of the Opposition Adrian Delia, the PD MPs told The Malta Independent at a press conference this morning.
In the press conference, Marlene Farrugia described Delia as “the poodle of the Prime Minister” and said that he had rushed to act on the Egrant inquiry’s conclusions, without seeing the full report, by removing one of the few voices of reason in the PN; while also pointing at other issues such as DB Group, explaining that the two main parties had become two parts of the same head.
"We cannot accept the silence from Delia's PN on environmental questions, on dubious contracts. They do not speak. Why don't they ever talk? Because they are complicit," she said.
PD Leader Anthony Buttigieg went as far to say that the removal of Simon Busuttil could be the result of ulterior motives from Delia.
The newsroom understands that it would require 16 opposition MPs, including Marlene Farrugia and Godfrey Farrugia who represent the Partit Demokratiku on the Opposition benches, to request the removal of Delia as Leader of the Opposition from the President. If he were to be removed as Opposition Leader it would not automatically mean that Delia is also removed as PN leader.
The possibility of a potential leadership challenge emerged after the publication of the conclusions of the Egrant magisterial inquiry has exposed the ever-deepening chasms within the Nationalist Party, with 10 PN MPs (more than a third of the party’s representatives in parliament) marching in open rebellion against Delia’s decision to remove his predecessor, Busuttil, from his shadow cabinet, and call on him to suspend himself from the PN parliamentary group.
Starting off with former Deputy Leaders Mario de Marco and Beppe Fenech Adami, MPs Jason Azzopardi, Karol Aquilina, Claudio Grech, Ryan Callus, Therese Commodini Cachia, Marthese Portelli, Karl Gouder, and Claudette Buttigieg all used the hashtag “#notinmyname, #strongertogether” or backed Busuttil in posts on social media.
Other MPs have openly supported their leader: deputy leaders David Agius and Robert Arrigo, whip Robert Cutajar, secretary general Clyde Puli, Kristy Debono, Mario Galea and Herman Schiavone
Chris Said, Edwin Vassallo, Ivan Bartolo, Fredrick Azzopardi, Maria Deguara, Stephen Spiteri, Toni Bezzina and Carm Mifsud Bonnici had yet to make their positions known yesterday evening
PD accepts magistrate's conclusions but doubts whether he had access to all the evidence
The Democratic Party called the press conference following the publication of the Egrant Inquiry which found that the documents that indicated that Michelle Muscat was the true owner of the Panamanian account had been falsified.
Stressing on multiple occasions that they had full faith in Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, both Buttigieg and Farrugia placed doubt on whether the full extent of material was available to him.
When pressed on the report's conclusions that CCTV footage in Pilatus Bank showed that its Chairman Ali Sadr Hasheminejad did not take any documents outside of the bank, Farrugia said that footage can be manipulated, saying that they would wait to read the entire report.
Farrugia expressly stated that while the inquiry had found no evidence of guilt with regards to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, he was not yet exonerated especially given the fact that Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi did open accounts in Panama, and the identity of Egrant still remained unknown, also pointing to other issues namely the Enemalta sale, Electrogas, the db ITS project, and the AUM's acquisition of ODZ land in Zonqor.
"I would love to see him fully exonerated, especially given that I had fully backed him in 2013 when he had got elected on the promises of transparency, meritocracy, accountability, and Taghna Lkoll. Taghna Lkoll for his clique in Castille," Farrugia said.
She also declined to apologise to the PM or his family when asked if she would by One News, given that the Egrant allegations formed part of Forza Nazzjonali's (the PD/PN coalition) electoral campaign.
"The entire country deserves a greater apology from the PM," Farrugia explained insisting that the PD had never used the Egrant allegations in their discourse.
They also raised concerns about growing similarities between the two main parties, denouncing Delia for his call for Busuttil to suspend himself from the PN Parliamentary group, explaining that Delia acted according to the PM's reaction to the report's conclusions, without reading the full report themselves.