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maltatoday WEDNESDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2017 News 2 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 More trouble could be brewing for the Nationalist Party, as Therese Comodini Cachia has indicated she would be voting according to her conscience in tomorrow's parliamentary debate on a motion put for- ward by her party on leave for IVF patients. The motion seeks to cancel a legal notice introduced before the summer that granted lesbi- ans and infertile women leave entitlement for IVF treatment. The PN's motion was filed on the day PN leader Adrian De- lia was sworn in as MP. Party sources told MaltaToday that Delia was adamant during a parliamentary group meet- ing held this week that no free vote would be given when the House debated the motion. The PN leader has been in- sisting all along that the ob- jection was over the inconsist- ency between the description of prospective parents in the legal notice and the IVF law that limits treatment to oppo- site sex couples. Last month, Comodini Cachia said she expected De- lia to give the parliamentary group a free vote when dis- cussing the matter, register- ing her objection to the mo- tion filed by her own party. Delia had stressed during the leadership campaign that he believed in giving MPs a free vote on matters of con- science, an appeal he also made to Prime Minister Jo- seph Muscat during their meeting last September. When contacted, Comodini Cachia refused to discuss what had been said during the parliamentary group meeting, or to even acknowledge that one took place. However, she said that she had not changed her position on the matter. "If your question is whether I've changed my position on the IVF proposal, then, no, I have not," she said, raising the possibility of a rerun of last July's vote on the Mar- riage Equality Bill, in which MP Edwin Vassallo voted ac- cording to his conscience and against the party line. "I will not vote against my conscience. I always respect the party line except where my conscience is involved," Comodini Cachia said. Sources told this newspaper that Comodini Cachia was not alone in opposing the mo- tion. Several MPs also object- ed to the PN motion but the sources said it was unclear whether they would follow Comodini Cachia's stand and vote against the party line. The PN's move had been criticised by many NGOs and civil liberties campaigners. Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat had also called it "offen- sive". Delia adamant not to grant free vote in debate on leave for IVF patients MASSIMO COSTA PHILIP von Brockdorff, who heads the University of Malta's economics department, told this newspaper that the Ger- man political situation will cause a lot of uncertainty in the Eurozone, which could ul- timately affect Malta. Talks, between Chancel- lor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister-party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), the pro-business Free Demo- cratic Party (FDP) and the Green party, to form a coali- tion government in Germany, collapsed late on Sunday. Merkel's options now are to forge on with minority rule, or call a fresh election. However, she said on Monday that, while remaining hopeful she could form a majority gov- ernment, if forced to choose, she preferred a new vote than a minority government. "Germany is the main motor of the Eurozone, and political instability will lead to econom- ic instability," von Brockdorff said, "Merkel was the person who stabilised the Eurozone after the financial crisis, and there is a now big question mark about what would hap- pen in a possible future with- out her." There is also the Brexit issue which comes into play and which will have an effect on the situa- tion, as the UK is a major market for Germany, and Germany has an interest in continuing to ex- port to Britain, he maintained. Moreover, a new Commis- sion is scheduled to be elected towards the end of 2019, and this also would cause Eurozone uncertainty, he said. "Malta is, of course, in the Eu- rozone, and with Germany be- ing a major player within this monetary union, the crisis in that country will have an im- pact on Malta too," von Brock- dorff added. One of the major issues con- tributing to the failure of coali- tion talks was migration, espe- cially in light of Merkel having opened Germany's border to Syrian migrants in 2015. Von Brockdorff said that Ger- many depended on migration, to an extent, to fill certain types of jobs which have now been mostly undertaken by migrants. "All these things create uncer- tainty in the Eurozone, and it is this overall uncertainty which could ultimately affect Malta," von Brockdorff explained. On Tuesday, Germany's presi- dent Frank-Walter Steinmeier called on the FDP and the Greens to re-evaluate the po- sitions they are taking and for talks to restart. The political crisis in Ger- many, normally a bastion of stability, and the European Un- ion's biggest economy, has sent shockwaves across Europe, with the euro falling against the yen, British pound and US dollar. Uncertainty over German political crisis to affect Eurozone, Malta Economist Philip von Brockdorff says that German political crisis will affect the EU monetary union and cause uncertainty which will impact Malta MATTHEW AGIUS PLASTIC crash barriers in- stalled to protect crowds at the ill-fated PaqPaqli Ghall- Istrina supercar exhibition in 2015, had not been filled with water as the organis- ers had initially intended, a court heard yesterday. 23 people were injured when a Porsche 918 Spyder driven by British million- aire Paul Bailey went out of control and ploughed into spectators at the event. Bailey, together with the event organisers was later charged with involuntar- ily causing grievous bodily harm, as well causing dam- age to various motor vehi- cles, through imprudence, carelessness and non-ob- servance of regulations. Video footage of the in- cident shows the barriers being f lung out of the way upon impact with the car. Court expert Mario Cas- sar testified that the bar- riers used were not filled with water. On Monday, MIA head of security Pat- rick Murgo testified that the organisation committee decided to use water-filled- barriers. In a marathon sitting on Tuesday, Magistrate Aaron Bugeja continued to hear testimony about the Octo- ber 2015 incident, which occurred during the annual fundraising event for the Malta Community Chest Fund, under the patronage of the Office of the Presi- dent. Another court-appointed expert, Joseph Zammit, was cross-examined on his re- port, in which he concluded the incident was primarily caused by a loss of control due to high speed, and be- cause the car had ended up on an unpaved part of the track. But during his cross-ex- amination, Zammit con- firmed he had never exam- ined a Porsche 918 Spyder before. The court expert was found to be unaware of the supercar's diagnostic data storage capabilities, and said that if any data had been extracted, it had not taken place in his pres- ence. Zammit had reached his conclusion that the car had been driven at excessive speed, not from the car's on-board computer data, but from the damage on im- pact. Police Inspectors Josric Mifsud, Silvio Magro and Hubert Cini are prosecut- ing. Bailey is being repre- sented by lawyer Giannella de Marco while lawyer Joe Giglio is Darmanin's legal counsel. The other members of the organising committee are being represented by lawyer Stefano Filletti in the court proceedings. Lawyers Rob- erto Montalto and Michael Grech are appearing as par- te civile for the victims. PaqPaqli ghall-Istrina crash barriers were not filled with water, court told Philip von Brockdorff