He was coyer about his intentions to contest a potential future PN leadership race, a role several of his supporters have urged him to go for in recent years. In fact, a recent Lovin Malta poll, which received over 3,000 submissions, had Debono as the second favourite for the top job, behind only Metsola, although he has now been overtaken by Grech and former leader Adrian Delia.

“I felt humbled at the results of that particular survey; it may not have been a scientific study but it was clearly indicative,” he said.

“I haven’t been active in the PN for the past ten years although I’m still a member. However, I appreciate the fact that people look at me in this way although I have been inactive for so long. The PN has a leader and I respect him and send him my regards, but it is obviously always nice to place in that position in a survey like that. MaltaToday recently also carried out a survey among PN councillors and I had featured in it.”

He said he doesn’t rule anything out in the future.

“Not only do I love politics but I feel I made a contribution. From the backbench, I think I managed to draft a justice reform that was the greatest holistic reform since Independence Day.”

Debono said the reason he enjoys such widespread popularity is that he has been proven right on several reforms he had proposed during his tenure as PN MP, which included granting suspects the right to a lawyer during police interrogations, revamping the way the judiciary is appointed, and splitting the role of the Attorney General.

“If you had to ask me what people see in me, I think they see a courageous man of principle who came up with valid and substantial proposals that helped the country. Ultimately I didn’t make these proposals to help myself, but to help the country.”

Debono said the time has come to introduce more sweeping reforms, including a revamp of Malta’s electoral system that would see the number of districts reduced from 13 to seven, with each district electing seven full-time MPs.

“We have experimented with gender quotas, but I believe, and had already proposed, that the solution to our political situation is to go in the opposite direction,” he said.

“We don’t need a larger Parliament, which is per capita already one of the largest ones in the world. We need a smaller Parliament. I proposed a smaller Parliament with full-time MPs, which could be based on a model of seven districts with seven MPs. Seven by seven… seven is a biblical number!”

He also called for a reform in the party financing law which has been effectively suspended for the past four years due to a state of legal ambiguity surrounding the Electoral Commission’s role following a constitutional judgment.

“No one is paying attention to this,” he warned. “We often discuss the links between businesses and politicians but the law which tackles it is the party financing law.”

“I had presented a bill in this regard in 2012, it was introduced by the new administration, but now it is practically dormant because of a constitutional case that was decided four years ago. I don’t know how we can talk about a strong democracy if everyone turns a blind eye to this law.”

“The electorate must impose some kind of pressure and demand that this law is enforced. First we were the last European country to pass such a law, but now that we passed it, we have managed to find an excuse to keep it dormant and not enforced.”

“In my opinion, the country needs to discuss these topics as soon as possible. Ideally they would have been discussed yesterday. These are crucial subjects for the existence of a democracy.”

Would you like to see Franco Debono make a comeback to the Nationalist Party?