Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil said today that  the people's mood and the way the people viewed the government has changed dramatically this summer.

Speaking in a Radio 101 interview, Dr Busuttil said the year had started badly for the government, with the manner of the prime minister's New Year's address and continuing with one scandal after another. 

PN wanted to show that it was the party that cared, the party that wanted to fight injustice and to be truly close to the people and worthy of their confidence.

His meetings with the people were always interesting, both about how the people viewed the PN, and also how they viewed the government,.

For many, the government was living a lie, based on cheap tax-funded propaganda where promises of Taghna Lkoll had become the standard joke, as had the Labour promise of transparency.

Dr Muscat speaks about political responsibility and a culture of resignations, but Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri and even Dr Muscat himself remained in saddle after the Panama scandal. 

Iceland recently proved itself inspirational in football, but it was worth recalling how its prime minister had resigned over the Panama Papers. 

"This issue will not go away until the election, it is far too serious and reaches the highest levels of power," Dr Busuttil said.  

Dr Busuttil said Malta's reputation was harmed when Dr Muscat persisted in meeting foreign leaders accompanied by his chief of staff Keith Schembri, despite the Panama companies.

Could Malta seriously assume the EU presidency while minister Konrad Mizzi, or deputy Central Bank governor Alfred Mifsud were in office?

He did not think so, Malta should not take up the presidency while these people still held sway.

Dr Busuttil said it was also a disgrace that no new Police Commissioner had been appointed after almost two months. It was clear that Dr Muscat was afraid of appointing a serious police commissioner, lest he started investigations into Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, among others. 

It was a shame that the present government sold the brand new (BWSC) power station to Shanghai Electric, despite the huge savings it was yielding in power generation. But it was even more disgraceful that Enemalta was now actually paying good money in order to continue using it.

And the government had refused to publish the sale agreement or give details about how much it was paying to rent it back..

All  this had to be seen against the background that the deals were negotiated by minister Konrad Mizzi, who had set up secret companies in Panama and declared that income would come from 'brokerage'. This was the same minister who had promised an audit of his affairs, but this had not come about.

Dr Mizzi had held his negotiations with a Chinese official who also set up a secret Panama company, using the same intermediary company as used by Dr Mizzi.

So was anyone wrong to suspect corruption?

 

It was ironic that Dr Mizzi had turned up for a Gvern li jisma discussion session, but refused to reply to questions about Panama. He did not to listen and reply.