Labour MP Silvio Parnis told Parliament yesterday that he has been the target of a campaign to tarnish his image and his credibility.

Speaking during the adjournment last night, Mr Parnis said that a number of anonymous letters had been passed to his party, the local media, to NGOs and TV presenters and that he had received phone calls from people who “wanted to destroy him whatever the cost and to destroy his voter base in his district”.

He said it was not the first time that his car had been scratched or the tyres torn. Furthermore, Mr Parnis said, a lot was being said in the Nationalist media about the programme that he used to present on Super One radio, Problemi tal-Qalb. He said he stopped the programme after the Labour Party had decided that no candidate up for election should have a programme on Super One TV or radio. “As soon as I stopped the programme, others stopped theirs as well… but why does the Nationalist media continue to say that only my programme was stopped?”

Mr Parnis told Parliament that anonymous letters about him had been sent to the sponsors of his programme on Smash TV and he questioned the motive behind these letters.

“Who do you want to hurt, me or those families in need that benefit from the programme? You even wanted to tarnish the financial arm that runs the association in a serious manner,” Mr Parnis asked.

He said the letters tried to depict him as a criminal, as someone who has close contact with criminals, whose friends were criminals and that his colleagues in politics were thieves.

“You are cowards… otherwise you would not have hidden behind an anonymous letter,” Mr Parnis said.

He said he forwarded the letters to the party’s vigilance board and to the police commissioner for further investigation.

“I asked them to investigate the letters because this is a case of pure jealousy and the aim is to ruin my voter-based in my constituency.”

Mr Parnis said that even though his colleague Jason Micallef told the newspaper Il-Mument that an investigation was not underway, “I still wrote to the board to investigate the letters and everything that had been said about me on Net News Radio 101 and Maltatoday”.

Referring to an article in Il-Mument on 25 June, he said he had no alternative but to file a libel case against the newspaper to defend his personal and political integrity. He added that if he was awarded damages by the court, the money would be given to the group M’intix Wahdek to help those in need. Mr Parnis insisted that the truth would come out in court.

The Labour MP then went on to explain the background behind a news report in the PN media about an inheritance he received from an elderly couple and not, as the media were saying, an elderly lady.

“I have known this couple for many years. They had no children but they treated me as if I was their son. The will was drawn up in 1991, 15 years ago, and they left me a small piece of land in St Paul’s Bay… where I was neither mayor, a member of Parliament or involved in politics. Why are you inventing a story week after week to destroy me? Have you not invented enough lies about me?” Mr Parnis said.

Speaking directly to Maltatoday and Net TV, he said they had reported about a piece of land that he had bought, just as other people bought land.

“I work, I receive an honorarium as an MP. I bought the land in the proper manner and not as you tried to give the impression that I had inherited it.

“I will challenge you whenever you want… I will put all the cards on the table… no one tarnishes my integrity and you will not either. I am clean and have nothing to hide, so much so that I submitted my tax return as requested by Parliament,” Mr Parnis said.

He said they (Net TV and Maltatoday) could not bear to see the son of a worker constantly working in his district and without compensation.

“I know you can’t bear to see the son of worker being elected on the first count with the highest number of votes…how did I get these votes? Because I am a thief, as you are trying to depict me?”

He challenged them to ask any of his constituents if he had ever charged them for his services.

“I’m sure that the campaign against me will help me to get the result I deserve in the next election,” Mr Parnis said.