WATCH: Opposition Leader Praises Franco Debono And Arnold Cassola When Asked Whether PN’s Doors Are Open
Photo: Facebook (Franco Debono)
Opposition leader Adrian Delia had words of praise for two political ‘free agents’ – criminal lawyer Franco Debono and former Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola.
Asked about these two people during an interview with Lovin Malta, Delia said it is not his style to single out people but that he admires Cassola’s pro-life and environmental policies and Debono’s ideas on constitutional reform.
“I certainly admire Arnold Cassola’s ideas [against abortion] and enjoy his ideas on particular environmental issues, as I admire Franco Debono’s ideas when he used to talk about constitutional reform,” he told Lovin Malta in an interview.
“Whether then, in a political sense, they would fit into a party and its mechanisms or not is another issue. I think Arnold Cassola has contributed a lot to politics in Malta and I agree that he has stood up for what he believes in, which Franco Debono did at the time also, so that’s my judgement.”
Delia brushed off Debono’s role in bringing down the last PN government in 2012, noting that the PN had lost that election by 35,000 votes.
“With such a thrashing, a lot of people had something to do with [bringing down the government],” he said, while leaving the door open for Debono to potentially contest elections under the PN ticket.
“If someone wants to contest an election, then there are party procedures where names are presented and discussed, but it’s not my job to actually do that,” he said. “Bringing out individual names and processing characters is completely not my style. I am much more comfortable talking about people’s ideas, and I won’t discard any good ideas, irrespective of who makes them.”
“Theres an old Chinese proverb which says that intelligent people discuss ideas, average people discuss things and stupid people discuss people. I wouldn’t like to discuss people but ideas. I would like to see who has the best proposals and, in my mind, the government certainly doesn’t.”
Cassola recently quit Alternattiva Demokratika after the green party decided to have an internal discussion on abortion, a topic he strongly opposes.
As for Debono, he was once one of the PN’s brightest young stars and had proposed several justice and constitutional reforms, many of which have since been implemented. However, his 2012 vote against the budget had famously brought down the most recent PN administration and he has remained distant from the party structures ever since.
Debono, now Law Commissioner, recently made headlines again when he lambasted Prime Minister Joseph Muscat as the most corrupt politician in Malta’s history and insisted he believes the infamous Panama company Egrant must have belonged to him or someone close to him.
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