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MT 13 April 2016

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WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post WEDNESDAY • 13 APRIL 2016 • ISSUE 464 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY EDITORIAL • PAGE 9 Marlene Farrugia steadfast on creating new party JAMES DEBONO MARLENE Farrugia will not be abandoning her project to set up a new political party insisting that her par- ticipation in a protest against corruption organised by the PN does not mean that she will be joining the PN. The independent MP also expressed reser- vations on the PN's no-confidence mo- tion, adding that she would have preferred a no- confidence vote in energy minis- ter Konrad Mizzi alone rather than in the entire gov- ernment. "I participated be- cause I wanted to speak to the people including people who voted for the Labour party in 2013 who were present in the protest". Farrugia – who resigned from Labour last year - insists that her participation did not signal allegiance to the PN but was prompted by the "overriding national interest". "If the protest was a flop, it would have sent a message that government can dis- regard public opin- ion. This is a government which reacts to surveys and numbers and one has to take that in ac- count", she said on the very seri- ous issues related to the Panama leaks which have shown that both Mizzi and the Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri hold offshore companies in the tax haven. According to Farru- gia, the huge turnout was a clear mes- sage to gov- e r n m e n t to act. According to Farrugia it would have made more sense if the pro- test was organised by civil society rather than by the PN as it would have been more inclusive but claimed that civil society lacks the resources to react immediately to events. She also pointed out that she had already participated in protests organised by the PN; namely the one in Zonqor point and the first protest against corruption when she attended as a citizen while re- fusing to address the protest from the podium. "I accepted to address the pro- test simply because the situ- ation has become even more serious in view of new revela- tions." Asked point blank if her participation signaled that she would eventually join the PN, Mar- lene told Malta- Today that this was not the case as she had already refused Si- mon Busut- til's offer to join the Nat iona l- ist oppo- sition fol- lowing her r e s i g n a t i o n from Labour. PAGE 3 Panamagate: Bartolo would have followed Sant's advice and resigned Independent MP says her participation in PN anti- corruption rally has no bearing on her plans to create a new party MATTHEW VELLA EDUCATION minister Evarist Bartolo has broken his silence over the fate of energy minster Konrad Mizzi, whose offshore interests in Panama were re- vealed by the leak of over 11.5 million documents from the Panamaniam law firm Mossack Fonseca. In a reference to former Labour leader Alfred Sant's post on Fa- cebook, Bartolo said that had Sant "given me that piece of ad- vice, I would have resigned," he told the Malta Independent. Bartolo is one of several vet- eran MPs who in a Labour par- liamentary group meeting ex- pressed his opinion that Mizzi should resign his post as energy minister. This week, former Labour prime minister Alfred Sant said that Mizzi should do the "hon- ourable thing" and resign. Mizzi, the newly-elected PL deputy leader for party affairs, insists he has done nothing wrong by setting up an offshore company in Panama which is owned by the trustees who run his offshore New Zealand trust, Rotorua. In his maiden speech as La- bour deputy leader to the party delegates on Thursday, Mizzi suggested he would give Prime Minister Joseph Muscat a free hand in determining his fate and said "I feel that the Prime Min- ister has to take a decision, and can consider any such decision as he feels fit." Such a stance has clearly ir- ritated Bartolo, who said "per- sonally, as a politician I must shoulder the responsibility for my actions, and not shift onto somebody else to judge whether I am in the right or wrong." He said that Labour's history was marked by people who sacri- ficed themselves and their free- dom "and surely weren't in it to become rich." PAGE 8 Evarist Bartolo (left) at the Labour general conference, next to justice minister Owen Bonnici

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