‘I did not meet Muscat before election’ – Anġlu Farrugia

Anġlu Farrugia was approached by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat with an offer to become Speaker only after the election. Contrary to the impression given in a news report of a radio programme that appeared in another newspaper recently, Dr Farrugia yesterday said he had not met Dr Muscat at an earlier stage. A former deputy leader of the Labour Party, Dr Farrugia fell out with Dr Muscat in December when he was forced to resign for attributing political motivation to a magistrate’s decree. Asked about his full-time role as Speaker, Dr Farrugia acknowledged his workload was not dissimilar to that of his part-time predecessor Michael Frendo. Dr Farrugia said the work that had to be carried out was now being done on a full-time basis. Dr Frendo’s predecessor, Louis Galea, also had a full-time role. “I am here every morning,” he said when The Times asked about his workload during a press conference in Parliament to unveil the formation of the permanent committees. During the press briefing, Dr Farrugia said a new permanent parliamentary committee would be created to oversee economic and financial matters. A motion to kick-start the process was presented and will be discussed next...