Parliament's Question Time was disrupted on Monday, as lingering tension from a rowdy session last Thursday spilled over into this week's first parliamentary session.
The Opposition walked out of parliament on Thursday, in protest at the Speaker having allowed the government to move an amendment to an Opposition motion.
Opposition MPs insisted the time allocated to the government had expired. The Speaker ruled otherwise.
That decision was again in focus on Monday afternoon, when Speaker Anġlu Farrugia delivered a ruling requested by Opposition MP Adrian Delia, after the prime minister accused him of having lied in his interpretation of the court judgement in the hospitals case.
Speaker Farrugia dismissed the complaint, pointing out that the prime minister had clarified his comment, saying instead that Delia had not been saying the truth about what the court judgement actually said.
The Speaker then went on to make some observations on what happened on Thursday. He regretted remarks and behaviour by MPs on both sides of the House, saying that while he acknowledged that some of it was political bickering in the heat of the moment, standing orders needed to be observed at all times.
On the distribution of time between the government and the opposition, he said the agreement was that there would be equal time for both sides, with the debate ending at 7pm.
Because of interruption, calls for points of order, and also the suspension of the sitting because of disorder, the speech by the prime minister ended later than expected.
The chair was prepared to extend the debate beyond 7pm but that was not accepted by the Opposition, Farrugia said.
He insisted that accepting the amendment motion was the correct course of action, pointing to several instances, going back to 2004, when amendment motions were moved after speeches were concluded and without notice.
Opposition insists ruling was improper
Opposition whip Robert Cutajar said that in the cases quoted by the Chair, the amendment motions had been moved within the time allocated to the then Opposition. By contrast, last Thursday there was no agreement on the extension of the debate time.
Cutajar also observed that the Labour newspaper KullĦadd had published a photo obviously taken in the House, without permission. Was he to assume that henceforth, pictures could be taken without permission?
The Opposition whip also objected to remarks given by the Speaker himself to the GWU newspaper It-Torċa about what happened on Thursday, saying they did not respect what had happened. He insisted that there had been no agreement that the debate could continue beyond 7pm.
Furthermore, the Speaker himself had twice said that the time allocated to the government had run out – before a government minister rose to present the amendment motion.
Parliamentary Secretary Andy Ellul said the agreement was that the government side would have 75 minutes, and the prime minister had been interrupted numerous times.
Labour MP Randolph DeBattista said Nationalist MP David Agius had implied that he took the photo which appeared in KullĦadd. DeBattista said that was not the case, but that he would not shirk from doing so, in the public interest, in the future should circumstances repeat themselves.
Agius called on the Speaker to use camera footage in the chamber to see who had taken the photo and to rule whether this was henceforth acceptable.
The Speaker said he would investigate and rule.
The sitting then continued normally, with MPs debating a Bill to implement the measures announced in the Budget.