Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil has called a Nationalist Party parliamentary group meeting for tomorrow to discuss the medical visas scandal which has exposed a prime minister “who is getting mixed up in his own lies”.
In a statement, the PN said that The Malta Independent on Sunday yesterday revealed that Joseph Muscat knew about allegations of corruption linked with this scandal. Dr Busuttil himself on Sunday said that Dr Muscat knew about this as Dr Busuttil had told him about it during a National Security Committee meeting last year.
However, in his statement to defend himself, “Muscat mixed up lies twice,” the PN said. First he said that he did not know anything about the scandal, and then he said that he had passed on information to the police. This however contradicted The Malta Independent on Sunday report in which Health Minister Chris Fearne said that he was the one to pass on the matter to the police – and not the prime minister.
This is a major scandal, the PN said, which was concocted by a person who is close to the PM’s chief of staff Keith Schembri and No Portfolio Minister Konrad Mizzi, who had been caught secretly opening companies in Panama.
In the light of this, the Opposition Leader has convened a meeting of the parliamentary group.
OPM reacts
In response, the Office of the Prime Minister said that Dr Busuttil called an urgent Parliamentary meeting based on his own lies, "this, when it is a fact he called the meeting because of the precarious position he is in".
"In his statement, Dr Busuttil has referred to a discussion within the National Security Committee for the second time this legislature, something that has never been done by any member of this committee in any legislature".
"Without commenting on what was said during the meeting, if one takes Dr Busuttil's statement as being correct, it would mean that the visa issue was discussed. This would be confirmation that any information given to government was passed on for investigation".
"If Dr Busuttil reads statements properly, and does not become confused by his internal situation, he wouldn't make ridiculous mistakes like this".