Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/643092
Newspaper post SUNDAY • 21 FEBRUARY 2016 • ISSUE 850 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY €1.40 Newspaper post €1.40 SUNDAY • 21 FEBRUARY 2016 • ISSUE 850 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY maltatoday PAGE 4 ... What's Alternattiva Demokratika doing on the pitch?' ... What's Alternattiva 24 Raphael Vassallo wants to know... SUNDAY • 21 FEBRUARY 2016 • ISSUE 850 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY today today • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY today • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY Where is V18 heading to? Teodor Reljic writes 9 YOUR FIRST READ AND FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT We need to talk about Mario... 29.8% (0.9p) Trust rating February 2016, and difference over last survey in January SURVEY PGS 12-13 37.3% (-0.3p) Speaker's son-in-law has 'person of trust' job in the House MATTHEW VELLA SPEAKER of the House Anglu Farrugia has refuted sugges- tions that the employment of his son-in-law at the House of Representatives in 2014 was a matter of family affinity. Eric Frendo, 33, was employed as a librarian at the House of Representatives on 1 January, 2014, with a salary set at Scale 13, which pays a maximum €17,000 salary. Farrugia, a former deputy leader of the Labour Party, has confirmed that Frendo was employed in his secretariat on a person-of-trust basis. But he disputed any suggestion of nepotism. Farrugia denied that "any kinship existed" on the date when Frendo was employed, which was just prior to his marriage to Farrugia's daughter Caroline – who today carries the double- barrelled surname Farrugia Frendo. "Upon his appointment, he was assigned to library duties, which he is performing with due diligence. The salary tied to this assignment is that of salary scale 13," Farrugia said of Frendo's annually renewable contract. As a Labour MP and deputy leader Farrugia had been a foremost critic of the Nationalist government's largesse to persons close to Lawrence Gonzi's inner core. As early as 2010, upon being elected to Labour's top posts, he promised to play a part "in building a country that will go from one troubled by corruption, to a society based on social justice and meritocracy." Traditional Labour voters: 10% say they won't vote Labour lead over PN up one point, Joseph Muscat's trust lead over Busuttil down from 9 to 8 points JAMES DEBONO A sign of disgruntlement among tra- ditional PL voters has crept into Mal- taToday's polls, with one-tenth of re- spondents who voted Labour in 2008 trusting neither Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, nor Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, and saying they will not vote if an election were held now. But none of these PL voters would vote PN and only 2% said they trust Busuttil more than Muscat. On the other hand, nearly 33% of switchers – those who voted PN in 2008 and PL in 2013 – are now back in the PN fold. This suggests that if Muscat man- ages to convince disgruntled tra- ditional PL voters to return to the fold, his party would enjoy a much stronger lead over the PN. It also sug- gests the PN needs to appeal to this category of voters to further reduce the gap. Despite a momentous political month which saw the resignation of Michael Falzon from parliamentary secretary responsible for lands, and the controversy on the appointments to the judiciary, the survey shows lit- tle change from a survey held in Jan- uary which had already seen Muscat losing two points over his trust rat- ing in October. Church digs its heels in over gay conversion THE Catholic Church is claiming that a plan to crimi- nalise gay conversion thera- pies would be "discrimina- tory" because it would make it a crime to assist a person with homosexual orientation to become heterosexual, "but perfectly legitimate to assist a heterosexual to become ho- mosexual." "Does this mean that homo- sexuals and heterosexuals are not afforded the same legal standing and protection?" the Church said in a position pa- per it issued, authored by sen- ior theologians as well as legal minds Kevin Aquilina and Giovanni Bonello. The answer to that ques- tion came from Gabi Calleja, coordinator of the Malta Gay Rights Movement. "While it is more likely that conversion practices are ex- perienced by LGBTI+ persons due to hetero-sexism and strongly prescribed sex and gender norms in our society, the bill simply seeks to ensure that all persons – whatever their sexual orientation, gen- der identity or gender expres- sion – are valued equally," Calleja said. And the position paper pro- voked an equally strong re- sponse from Christian gay rights group Drachma, and civil liberties minister Helena Dalli. PAGE 3 Fun house: Speaker says 'no kinship existed' when his prospective son-in-law got a person of trust job in January 2014 17 Valletta scores low in national poll on satisfaction with its cultural facilities Capital dissatisfaction