Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi is appealing a ruling by the Speaker in which he was found prima facie guilty of a breach of privilege.
Dr Azzopardi landed in hot water over a Facebook post which included footage of a political activity held in Tarxien on January 5, in which he had called Labour deputy leader for party affairs Chris Cardona “a liar and corrupt”.
Aggrieved by the comment Dr Cardona sought redress in Parliament through a Speaker’s ruling, after Dr Azzopardi failed to retract his remarks but challenged the former minister to take him to court.
In a harshly-worded motion of appeal, the PN MP said it was “inconceivable” how Speaker Anġlu Farrugia could censure a Member of Parliament for something said outside the House, when the aggrieved party could seek redress in court for defamation.
Dr Azzopardi insisted that he had only repeated what had already been said in public and reported on the media on Dr Cardona’s conduct in his ministerial role, which the latter neither explained nor denied.
An MP, he said in the motion, was bound to call "liar and corrupt" a minister who commits perjury, goes to brothels while on ministerial duty, abuses public funds, lives beyond his means, and has close links with the criminal underworld, including the masterminds in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, Dr Azzopardi said.
He added that the Speaker’s ruling had set a dangerous precedent as the President of the House vested himself with the right to censure political debates outside parliament rather than recognise there were other remedies available for redress.
In view of this, Dr Azzopardi is calling for a revision of the Speaker’s ruling, and that a report is compiled which would have to be included in the minutes of the proceedings of the House.
The motion was filed under a Standing Order which states that a Speaker’s ruling can be appealed within two days.
However, the matter could be left on the backburner indefinitely as the onus is on the government to put the motion on parliament’s agenda. In such a scenario, Dr Cardona would not be able to take the case before the Privileges Committee which could refer the case to court.
In October 2018, Dr Azzopardi had filed a similar motion on a similar ruling regarding a tweet which he had made on the then Economy Minister Chris Cardona. To date, the motion has not been debated.