Watch: Franco Debono Calls Gonzi’s ‘Nivvota Bil-Qalb’ Speech ‘Vile’ In Rebuttal To Azzopardi
Former PN MP Franco Debono has strongly rebutted Peppi Azzopardi’s claim that an infamous electricity bill speech by former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was taken out of context.
“It was a vile speech,” Debono said. “If you’re going to increase electricity bills and cause many households to suffer as a result, how can you say in the same breath that you’re going to do so wholeheartedly?”
“If he wanted to vote against it, he should have said that he is voting with a heavy heart due to a lack of alternatives… even though there were alternatives.”
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During Gonzi’s tenure as Prime Minister, the PN government shot down a motion proposed by the PL Opposition to reduce electricity bills, and Gonzi said he is “wholeheartedly voting against it”.
Azzopardi told Lovin Malta that the former Prime Minister’s logic was that he was opposed to a universal subsidisation of bills on the grounds that this would subsidise energy waste and disincentivise people from investing in solar panels.
He said that, had Gonzi’s plan come to fruition, the current government wouldn’t have had to spend millions in public funds to subsidise electricity bills, at a burden to the national debt.
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However, Debono, who served as a PN MP under Gonzi during a period of immense political turmoil, warned that Azzopardi is trying to “rewrite history”.
“Ironically today is the same day that Edwin Vassallo, who served as a PN MP for 25 years and who was part of Gonzi’s Cabinet, announced that he will contest the MEP election as an independent candidate. Edwin Vassallo is the same person who had tried to convince me to support the government and to tone down my criticism of it, but he has now left the PN himself.”
Urging people not to romanticise the last PN government’s work in the energy sector, Debono reminded people that it had operated a power station that run on heavy fuel oil, posing a health risk to people who lived in the south of Malta.
As for Gonzi’s solar panel proposal, Debono criticised the former government for “always discussing ideas while never implementing them”.
He warned that Gonzi played a significant role in “dividing” the PN and never publicly apologised for transforming it from a victorious party into one synonymous with losing elections by massive 35,000 majorities.
“He is still pulling the strings,” he said.
As for Azzopardi, Debono said that while he disagrees with the veteran journalist’s analysis of Gonzi’s speech, he still believes he would have made a good President of the Republic and said he was disillusioned that the PN never proposed him for the key role.
READ NEXT: Watch: Gonzi’s Infamous ‘Nivvota Bil-Qalb’ Declaration Broken Down By Peppi Azzopardi
