PN Leader Simon Busuttil said that the Prime Minister had a clear choice tonight, and "he chose Keith Schembri over the Maltese People".
He was addressing a press conference and was referring to a motion in Parliament tonight by Marlene Farrugia, relating to Keith Schembri and the Panama Papers revelations. The motion did not pass.
"We have a situation where there are laws for the gods of Castille and laws for everyone else".
"We have a law that applies differently for different people. The Prime Minister didn't even accept the idea of Keith Schembri appearing before a Parliamentary Committee to be questioned. MP Marlene Farrugia even offered the PM, three times, the opportunity to have a majority in the Committee where he would appear before, yet the PM did not even accept this".
The PM avoided answering certain questions during the debate, such as how many times did he, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri go to Azerbaijan. He didn't respond to allegations regarding payments which allegedly passed between Keith Schembri to Adrian Hillman. He also didn't comment on the information which shows that Minister Mizzi told Mossack Fonseca that he has a personal revenue of €6.4 million".
"He also did not answer questions relating to Brian Tonna opening companies for Cheng Chen who was negotiating with the government over the sale of Enemalta".
"The people want honesty. Today, while the PM won the vote, he lost all those people who, in the coming days, will fill out their tax forms. He lost all those who obey the law. He lost the pensioners who cannot make ends meet, and those on social benefits who don't receive enough. I have no doubt that the PM also lost the respect of many of those who voted for him"..
Asked about the Cedoli scheme, he said it does not put him in political obligations as Joseph Muscat was through the fourth floor, where the "PL accepted donations which created political obligations. This is the difference, I don't get into such political obligations".
"The bottom line is that it is not acceptable that in a normal country, such things to occur. In another country, Mizzi and Schembri would have already gone. This is not a closed chapter. It will continue to haunt him till the end".
As for Keith Schembri and his companies, the Opposition Leader said it was a lie that Keith Schembri gave up control over his companies, given that he gave the go ahead recently, as per the Panama Papers, to go for a bank account.
Dr Busuttil said that the Prime Minister is not carrying responsibility and his duties as Prime Minister. We want a normal country and it is not acceptable for us to live in a country where one closes their eyes to such things".