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MALTATODAY 29 September 2019

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14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 SEPTEMBER 2019 MARLENE Farrugia does leave a legacy. As a foremost internal critic of Labour's environmental policies, the one-time Labour MP revolutionised the way par- liament's environmental com- mittee works, which she ably chaired. She opened up its meet- ings to NGOs and asked the per- tinent questions during hearings on controversial developments like Zonqor, a site formerly ear- marked to host the main cam- pus of the fledgling American University of Malta. Back then Farrugia was testimony to the power of internal dissent and one is still tempted to ask: what if Farrugia had stayed on, care- fully choosing her battles within the Labour party to win some of those battles? Yet, after leaving Labour she drifted, taking with her a more reluctant husband, none other than the former health minister and Labour whip Godfrey Farru- gia, on a rollercoaster ride across uncharted territory. This was testimony both to her courage and recklessness in first found- ing a new centrist party with no clear identity, and then forging a coalition with Simon Busut- til's Nationalist Party… a deal which secured the re-election of the Farrugia couple to parlia- ment. Yet after this historic break- through, the couple's fortunes nose-dived. For a time, Marlene Farrugia even floated the idea, typical of her impolitic manner, of con- testing for PN leader right af- ter being elected an MP in the Forza Nazzjonali coalition. She then went on to obstruct new PN leader Adrian Delia's path to parliament, who needed the withdrawal of PD candidates from by-elections to allow his co-option, eroding the trust she enjoyed among a large segment of PN voters. In the meantime, her partner Godfrey had assumed leadership of the new party. But despite his reputation for integrity and prin- cipled approach, he failed in his first electoral test when contest- ing as an MEP candidate, being even outshone by the Swedish clean-up campaigner Camilla Appelgren – a liberal addition to the PD who instantly shook up the Farrugias' meek position on abortion rights. With the chances of re-election in the next election looking dim- mer than ever, the couple have now decided to jump ship, on the premise that in so doing they would clear the way for a new generation of leaders free from the baggage which ultimately weighed on the new party. But why did the new party fail to take off despite the high expec- tations raised by the election of two MPs in parliament? Running before it could walk The party forged a coalition pact with the PN months after being founded, lacking sufficient roots to be treated as an equal, to the extent that its candidates had to contest on the PN ban- ner. Carried away by the justi- fied moral outrage on the Pan- ama Papers scandal, the party projected itself more as a radical Opposition to the dominant La- bour Party than as an alternative to both parties. Sure enough, the party had exploited the only realistic path for a third party to get elected in parliament but this inevitably shaped its iden- tity. In this way the party relied on the support and goodwill of a segment of angry PN voters, and failed to make substantial inroads among other sectors like floaters who were reluctant on giving the PN another chance af- ter just four years in Opposition. The strategy proved successful in the short-term goal of ensur- ing the re-election of the Farru- gia couple, but was neutralised by the fact that Labour was re- elected with the same major- ity and Simon Busuttil resigning from PN leader. The party owed its MPs to the PN The election of two PD MPs on the PN list proved a bitter pill for the defeated PN to swallow. While it may well be the case that in the absence of the coali- tion the PN would have fared even worse, the coalition did give an option to voters who could not bring themselves to vote for established PN candidates. But the end result showed that the PD did not bring enough added value to the coalition to narrow the gap. The perception among PN die-hards was that the PD had taken a free ride off the PN, tak- ing more than giving back in the process. Moreover, the coali- tion with the PN irremediably blocked Labour-leaning voters from ever warming up to the new party. Shaped in Marlene's image Marlene Farrugia's mercurial and exuberant character over- shadowed the party since its foundation. She displayed the zeal of a convert going an extra mile to distance herself from Labour, endorsing the Egrant allega- tions and going out of her way to denounce Labour's corrup- tion. The decision of her partner Godfrey Farrugia, who right till the end of the legislature in 2017 served as Labour whip, to join the Forza Nazzjonali bandwag- ANALYSIS PARTIT DEMOKRATIKU The Democratic Party is no longer represented in the Maltese parliament. Does this spell the end to the latest experiment in third party politics - and why did it fail, asks JAMES DEBONO JAMES DEBONO Marlene Farrugia's mercurial and exuberant character overshadowed the party since its foundation Ready to run: Marlene Farrugia takes the PD candidates to the electoral office to register as candidates on the PN list. Under the 2017 Rollercoaster to irrelevance: Farrugias and Godfrey After her fallout with Labour following the controversial MEPA demerger, Marlene Farrugia's PD came into formation during the Panama Papers scandal, which galvanised the Nationalist Opposition and brought the two parties closer together, until they announced a formal coalition, Forza Nazzjonali, in 2017

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