Joseph Muscat Calls For Removal Of MPs’ Immunity After Speaker Rules Jason Azzopardi Breached Privilege
Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has called for a reform of parliamentary privileges afforded to MPs, including the removal of immunity, following a Speaker’s ruling in his favour.
“Parliamentary privilege was set up for a good reason in another time when the world was different,” Muscat said. “The time for privilege, and immunity in particular, is over, especially when it is abused by an MP who should know better.”
Muscat had called for the removal of privilege back in 2017 and the Labour Party had included it in its electoral manifesto.
He reiterated his call after Speaker Anġlu Farrugia ruled that Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi had breached parliamentary privilege when he claimed Muscat had called a snap election in 2017 to get Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination “out of the way”.
“The Speaker’s ruling doesn’t leave any room for interpretation and shows that this lie against me goes against all sense of justice,” Muscat said. “Jason Azzopardi keeps insisting on this lie.”
“Despite the criticism I faced from a number of people close to me, I always insisted that I should allow free expression to reign supreme, even when what is said against me is rude, exaggerated or invented.”
“However, this lie was too much and was the worst abuse of parliamentary privilege I have ever seen, both in my time a journalist and as an MP.”
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