Government MP Franco Debono, on Tuesday lashed out at Malta’s Permanent Representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana, during an adjournment speech.

He was twice asked by the Speaker to regulate his position because he was not addressing the Chair and was referring to a public official who was not present in the House.

At one point, Dr Debono even entered into a direct confrontation with the Speaker, making it clear he understood him but meanwhile intended not to pause.

Dr Debono reacted to questions on the way he would be voting in parliament and said this astounded him because the House Business Committee was not moving votes.

The House Business Committee and its chairman, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici decide, or maybe Richard Cachia Caruana who gives advice from behind the scenes, should be asked about this. “Don’t ask me because I’m just a ‘biċċa’ deputat, but he (Mr Cachia Caruana) has been manoeuvring and manipulating things for 25 years,” he said.

He added that if we were in another country, this would be front page news every day but no one shoulders responsibility here. We had a No-Confidence vote in the government that did not pass because the Speaker voted with the government and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said, on a number of occasions, that mistakes have been committed.

“We were not close to the people,” Dr Debono quoted Dr Gonzi saying, noting it was ministers who were committing such mistakes. But no one shoulders responsibility and resigns, he continued.

“We are creating task forces for everything that happens, as in Labour Party times, but I don’t know what they are doing and what Richard Cachia Caruana is orchestrating,” he said.

He lamented of complaining about this dragging of feet in the justice sector and in reforms for a long time. Meanwhile, people have commented that Dr Debono likes to take merit. Acknowledging this, he said that no one likes being beaten up.

“I fight for reforms and am criticized all the time, but then others are congratulated,” he said. “This is like someone who’s left hungry and when he asks for food, he gets beaten up. Is this right?”

The reforms he has been speaking about are of great importance, he continued, and compared them with ones that took place in the eighties and nineties. The people have sent a serious message and asked to have their country back in last Saturday’s local council elections. The damage that has been made needs to be repaired because people out there are hurt, but they (Cabinet ministers) don’t seem to be getting this.

In the past, those in nobility used to live comfortably all the time and people who worked for them used to suffer all the time, but times have changed.

In reply to criticism against him about being in the limelight, he said that in the past, he convinced hundreds to vote for the PN, and later insisted many times for reforms to strengthen democracy. It is clear this has not been strengthened and the next step is to end up as an oligarchy.

He said he was sorry for Pietru Pawl Busuttil, who loves Safi and worked a lot for the village, but lost the majority at Safi in Saturday’s local elections. Although Mr Busuttil had hurt Dr Debono, he considers him “a living human shield of our liberties in the eighties”, for which he suffered a lot.

He described the proposal for the project outside St John’s Co-Cathedral, which had eventually been shelved, as “a hysterical act of madness” which Richard Cachia Caruana had come up with.

He then made a list of questions on Mr Cachia Caruana:

“Has this been analysed enough?

“Who damaged the government, was it Richard Cachia Caruana or the backbencher who stopped it?

“Is Richard Cachia Caruana a team player? Is it true that he pretended to become European Commissioner? Did he exert a lot of pressure? Does this person enter subtly but pretend he has the divine right to dip a finger in every pie, as if he’s doing Malta some favour, but is meanwhile taking someone else’s place ?

“Does he try to eliminate the people he does not manage to control?

“Has he got any scruples, or is he ready to do everything?

“Is he a control freak?

“Does it suit him to have weak ministers in cabinet and whom he can control? How does he treat people?

“Is he obsessed with power and wants something more every time he is given something? The 25 years he’s been in power speak for themselves,” Dr Debono said.

“Has power got to his head?

“Does he treat people with respect…?

“Is he selfish…, a narcissist, and ambitious?

“Everyone pretends to be a saint, while pointing fingers at others,” he added.

“Is this person accountable? Does he report to anyone? Does he snatch other people’s power?

“This person has never contested an election so no one knows what right he has to attend Cabinet, or how to remove him,” he remarked.

“Is it true that he decides who is in Cabinet? Does he break out in tears during meetings and then shout at everyone immediately afterwards? Is this a hysterical and psychiatric condition?

“What was this person’s childhood like? Was his father, a former headmaster, a wicked man who bullied him? Has this affected his childhood?

“Is he receiving the psychiatric care he needs?”