Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia has hit back at Matthew Caruana Galizia, the son of the late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, after he called on him to resign in the best interests of the country. 

Caruana Galizia wrote to Farrugia last week telling him that he should resign for the good of Malta’s democracy.

The letter was made public this afternoon, prompting Farrugia to respond through his lawyer Ian Refalo. 

“Firstly, in accordance with proper parliamentary procedure, letters should not be addressed to the Speaker of the House personally, but to the Clerk of the House,” Refalo noted. 

“This may be attributable to a lack of knowledge of parliamentary practice and the laws of Malta on your part.” 

The lawyer also referred to a libel case instituted by Farrugia against Daphne Caruana Galizia in which she had been found guilty of defaming him. 

“May I assure you that in the best interest of democracy and the democratic government of Malta, the Speaker intends to continue to do his duty as he is required to do at law. Your unsubstantiated allegations are therefore rebutted,” read the reply.

The reply made no reference to Caruana Galizia’s central claim, that the Speaker was not doing enough to respect Parliament and its procedures. 

In his letter, Caruana Galizia accused Farrugia of making an “extraordinary effort to protect an MP who accepted a bribe from a person on track to be prosecuted for high-level corruption, a bribe to fuel the MP’s campaign against justice for [his] mother”.