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WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION WEDNESDAY • 18 NOVEMBER 2015 • ISSUE 443 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY €1.00 Newspaper post Further information please visit: www.christmasingozo.com or our facebook page Christmas in Gozo MINISTRY FOR GOZO CHRISTMAS IN GOZO 5th Dec 2015 till 3rd Jan 2016 www.visitgozo.com 'Prime Minister, I'm resigning…' MATTHEW VELLA MIRIAM DALLI LABOUR MP Marlene Farrugia has finally broken ranks with the party she joined in 2003 as a pro- spective candidate, and announced her resignation in a handwritten letter she gave to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday. She tendered her resignation to the prime minister, saying she was resigning from the PL, the parlia- mentary group, and as chairperson of the permanent committee for the environment and planning. Asked to explain the reasons for her resignation, Farrugia said her decision was motivated by the government's insistence on going down the same road which led to the implosion of the previous PN administration. In comments to the media yes- terday evening, Farrugia said the straw that broke the camel's back was the realisation that in the en- vironmental sector the Labour government is emulating the PN administration which did not take decisions in the national interest but "gave in to pressures which come when in power" or as a result of pre-electoral pacts. Explaining that she would stay on as an independent MP, Farrugia said she would continue represent- ing the people who voted for "trans- parency, honesty and dignity." She added that "the environment and planning are at a crossroads" and if the government does not change direction the price will be paid by Labour and present and fu- ture generations. Farrugia said the Labour govern- ment had forgone an opportunity to change things by insisting on excluding civil society from the new environment authority by it- self deciding who would sit on the authority. Moreover, Farrugia expressed her disagreement with the govern- ment's opposition to allow future planning authority chairperson nominees to be grilled by parlia- ment and civil society. While noting that her relation- ship with the Prime Minister was "very good", she expressed her hope that Labour would not allow its big majority in parliament to go to its head. Commenting to MaltaToday as he left the House of Representa- tives, Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat said it was Farrugia's right to resign, and he respected her choice to resign from the party. Insisting that there was no ani- mosity between him and Farrugia, the Prime Minister described the outspoken MP as "a free thinker who says what she thinks... I'm a free thinker myself and I say what I think." In reference to his nine-seat ma- jority, he said "the numbers are what they are and we look forward to continue governing with an ab- solute majority." The Labour government won a nine-seat majority in 2013. Farru- gia's partner, Godfrey Farrugia, is the party's whip. In a tweet, Opposition leader Si- mon Busuttil said that Muscat's "movement" – the broad band of voters he spearheaded as part of his electoral campaign – had "started to crack. People are beginning to see through him." On his part, Joseph Muscat also said in a tweet that he had accepted her resignation and that he wished her "all the best for the future" and thanked her for all her work for the Labour Party. Marlene Farrugia was the third MP to announce a resignation: Giovanna Debono resigned from the Nationalist group but retained her seat after her husband An- thony was charged in court with misappropriation; and Joe Cas- sar resigned from the Nationalist group and as MP after being found to have received undeclared gifts from a donor when he was minis- ter. Earlier in the sitting, Marlene Farrugia joined the Opposition in voting against two amendments of the Environment Protection Act, which will set up one of the two au- thorities formerly merged into the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. Farrugia also supported calls by the Opposition for par- liamentary scrutiny of the execu- tive chairman, nominated by the government: she said "it was time for the government to move away from past practices and increase parliamentary scrutiny." The two amendments to the law were rejected, with the government winning the votes by 33 to 22. A former Nationalist candidate in the 1996 and 1998 elections, Marlene Farrugia was at the time married to Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando. The couple separated and in September 2003, she announced she was exploring a candidature with the Labour Party. In 2008 she was elected MP, where she supported the leadership bid by George Abela after the resignation of Alfred Sant. In the run-up to the 2013 election, her partner Godfrey Farrugia was also fielded as a can- didate, successfully. Marlene Farrugia breaks ranks with a terse three-liner to Joseph Muscat announcing she is no longer a Labour MP. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil says Muscat's Labour movement 'has started to crack' Paceville club owners to be arraigned JURGEN BALZAN FOUR men who manage the Paceville nightclub where 74 rev- ellers were injured in a stampede on Saturday night are expected to be arraigned in court today. Hugo Chetcuti, Carlo Schem- bri, and Frankie and Raymond Grima are directors of Three Sixty Ltd, which runs a number of leading establishments in Paceville including Havana, Plusone and gentlemen's club Steam. The men are expected to be charged with failing to uphold safety standards in the nightclub and allowing underage people in the establishment where 74 peo- ple were injured, some seriously, at the weekend, with two of the victims being aged 13 and 15. In 1998, Frankie Grima was acquitted of the 1992 murder of Diego Farrugia, a Paceville pro- tection money racketeer who died after the entrepreneur fired a number of shots outside his club. Five years ago, the 58-year-old Grima was conditionally dis- charged and fined €50 for push- ing a police superintendent in an argument over smoking in his club. Earlier this year, impresario Hugo Chetcuti was in the news over his links with shamed po- lice inspector Daniel Zammit, son of former acting police com- missioner Ray Zammit. The Paceville entertainment mogul hosted a birthday party for Daniel Zammit's brother Roderick at his €6 million villa in Madliena. The former police inspector was also a shareholder in Diabolik Entertainment with Chetcuti's son, Luke. In an inquiry over the Zam- mits' conduct, Mr Justice Mallia described Chetcuti as a "dubious character whose copious penal record includes regular breaches of rules in his Paceville estab- lishments." PAGE 3 PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD PAGE 3