Aaron Farrugia wasn’t sacked because he was bad at his job, Robert Abela insisted.  No, he was sacked because government needed to “renew” itself.  And what better way to renew than to get rid of the bungling Aaron Farrugia. Everybody else kept his cabinet seat - except poor Aaron.  In what must be the most humiliating cabinet reshuffle in history, Farrugia was singled out and discarded by an insensitive, callous prime-minister.

Abela frantically tried to come up with excuses for sacking Aaron.  He only made things worse.  Abela declared that Farrugia’s sacking was “in the best national interest”.  At last we can all agree with Abela.

“Why did you remove Aaron Farrugia from Minister?”, Abela was asked.  Hesitating and sweating profusely Abela replied: “Aaron Farrugia, first of all, is a person who was born in the Labour party, since his youth he worked and gave a huge contribution to the party, which I am sure he’ll continue to do”. Is that why he sacked him?  Abela was just spewing verbal diarrhoea to conceal the real reason for sacking Farrugia.

“I believe he carried out his work to the best of his abilities,” Abela added sheepishly.  Clearly the best of his abilities was nowhere near good enough. “This was a process of renewal, because if you don’t renew you will stagnate, we can see what’s happening with the Opposition,” Abela waffled.

“I don’t know why you are singling out Aaron Farrugia,” Abela accused the baffled Mark Lawrence Zammit. Nobody singled out Farrugia except Abela.  He singled him out for a demeaning public dressing down he’ll never forget.

Of course Aaron Farrugia deserved to be kicked out.  He should never have been a Minister in the first place.  He’s been plodding from one mess to another, humiliating himself and the entire country.

On the third anniversary of the tragic death of Miriam Pace, Farrugia posed for photographs with one of the contractors of LK Ltd, the company involved in the botched demolition that caused her death. The company was given a massive government contract to construct Triq is-Sejba in Mqabba despite the fact it was still being pursued in the courts. When Farrugia was lambasted for his daft stunt, he got Infrastructure Malta to justify awarding LK Ltd the contract. The company hasn’t been convicted “with a definitive sentence yet”, was his lame excuse.

As Minister responsible for the environment, Farrugia posed for a photo with Joseph Portelli who was busy admitting to illegal excavations in a protected area in Qala. 

When Farrugia was asked whether the notorious Christian Borg had won a Transport Malta tender to supply vehicles, Farrugia denied that the company was Borg’s. “The company is different - with a different name and shareholders” Farrugia declared in parliament. In fact the ultimate beneficial owner was none other than Christian Borg who’d been charged with kidnapping and money laundering. A ministry spokesperson had to issue a defence on behalf of the Minister: “the Minister did not lie”.

When caught giving contracts to a man indicted for kidnapping, Farrugia came up with a fresh excuse: “I am uninformed about criminal proceedings against Christian Borg….I am still adjusting to the new portfolio”.

Farrugia kept putting his foot in it. As the country fumed in standstill traffic, Farrugia came up with one of his classics: “Road closures due to village feasts are also to blame… the country needs to decide whether we want feasts or not”, he lectured.

In another gaffe he lambasted the PN for a pre-budged document “replete with Maltese language typos and grammatical mistakes”. Except the document had only been published in English. “I made a mistake,” he had to admit. It wasn’t the only one.

After picking up a fight on Twitter with Matt Bonanno, in a fit of petulance he exposed the identity of the Bis-Serjeta’ satirist who had mocked his mother’s embarrassing public interventions on Facebook in defence of her son.

When two Transport Malta officials were filmed assaulting a driver who lay defenseless on the ground, Farrugia failed to turn up in Parliament to answer questions. Owen Bonnici stood in his stead, stating that Farrugia was “out on government duty”. But MPs Ryan Callus and Mario de Marco had taken the lift with Farrugia just minutes before. In another public humiliation the Standards Commissioner chastised Farrugia publicly - “he should have scheduled his meetings properly”.

There was worse. Farrugia issued a €2 million facade restoration scheme.  Only 14 roads qualified, 7 of them in his two electoral districts. The Standards Commissioner refused to investigate him claiming it was “difficult if not impossible” to obtain the necessary information.

When it was revealed that multi-million euro contracts had been awarded by direct order to Jonathan Vella, the brother of Infrastructure Malta’s head of implementation Noel Vella, Farrugia didn’t even bother to reply to journalists’ questions, let alone call in the police to investigate.

But what irked Labour the most was the crude way in which Farrugia replaced staunch Labour activists on the Transport Malta board with his own canvassers and supporters, immediately after becoming Minister. He went on to employ 36 consultants in his ministry, costing the state €700,000 a year.

But that’s not why Robert Abela sacked him.  Abela had personally chosen former Brigadier Jeffrey Curmi as CEO at Transport Malta. Farrugia fell out with Curmi. In March 2023 information was leaked to the press that Curmi was to be replaced. Without Abela’s consent,  Farrugia spoke to the press : “Tomorrow in the afternoon or evening, I will announce changes at Transport Malta”. It would take another six weeks of wrangling and bickering before Curmi finally resigned. Farrugia thought he’d gotten his way. But Curmi paid him back. At his parliamentary grilling, Curmi revealed: “The Minister asked me to move out of the way and I did”.

It’s now Farrugia’s turn to move out of the way. Abela has taken his vengeance and sent a clear message to the rest - cross me and you’ll regret it.