Franco Debono Stands Up For Chris Said After Gonzi Links Come Back To Haunt Gozitan MP
Former PN MP Franco Debono has urged the Nationalist Party not to sideline or discard Chris Said after the MP was kept out of the new Shadow Cabinet because he had served within former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s Cabinet.
“Everyone knows that if there was one person who was critical of Dr Gonzi’s leadership style, it was me,” Debono said. “History has proven, and will continue proving me right, and everyone knows this, but now we must look to the future.”
“Even though Chris Said was part of Gonzi’s Cabinet, it doesn’t mean he should be excluded, on the contrary. I believe that in very difficult circumstances, Chris wasn’t part of the problems back then but would have actually been part of the solution had he been allowed to work.”
Debono praised new Shadow Gozo Minister Alex Borg, who stunningly won over 6,000 first-count votes at the general election, to high heavens but said his promotion shouldn’t come at Said’s expense.
“I believe the PN should rebuild itself through people like Alex Borg but also that it will regress if it sidelines or discards people like Chris Said, who still have what it takes to contribute,” he said.
“After all, there were people who weren’t in Gonzi’s Cabinet but were still problematic. I will leave it up to you to decide whether they are still problematic or not.”
When PN leader Bernard Grech announced his Shadow Cabinet this week, Said, Mario de Marco and Carm Mifsud Bonnici were the only three MPs kept out.
Said, who had served as Parliamentary Secretary for Public Dialogue and Minister for Justice, Dialogue and Family, said that Grech expressly told them they were being kept out because they had served within Gonzi’s Cabinet.
New Gozo Shadow Minister Alex Borg
Debono had a longstanding dispute with the Gonzi administration after the then MP had proposed a raft of institutional and constitutional reforms which were ignored by his party.
The dispute culminated with Debono casting a crucial vote against the 2013 budget, resulting in the downfall of the Gonzi government and triggering a general election, which the Labour Party won by a landslide.
However, Gonzi and Debono have since buried the hatchet, with the former Prime Minister stating in a recent interview that he meant no disrespect to Debono when he infamously called him irrelevant.
Meanwhile, the PL has given Cabinet positions to three of its Gozitan MPs, with Clint Camilleri and Anton Refalo remaining Gozo Minister and Agriculture Minister respectively, and newcomer Jo Etienne Abela becoming Active Aging Minister.
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