Former PN leader Simon Busuttil said today that for the first time in his political career, he doubts whether the country will be able to recover from this dark period.

Speaking in parliament instead of PN spokesperson for the Home Affairs Beppe Fenech Adami who was not able to attend due to a medical operation, Busuttil said that this is the best time to speak about home affairs. He noted that there is not much about which he can criticise Minister Michael Farrugia directly, because he has been minister responsible for this sector for a few months.

"I am honestly in doubt whether the country can ever recover from the this period. This week, for the first time, I felt embarrassed to be a member of parliament, to be involved in politics." 

He described the Prime Minister's speech as hypocritical. He said that he could not hold back from interfering because he could not stand listening to Joseph Muscat trying to manipulate the situation to his best interest.

Busuttil said that Daphne Caruana Galizia represented "most of my values and principles. There were many occasions when she put me in difficulty, like when she insisted I should sack Mario de Marco. But I always respected her work. She was a symbol of what is right, of decency and normality. She was a symbol of the fight against corruption."

He said that many used to say that Daphne Caruana Galizia used to lead the PN's agenda. "This is as far from the truth as it can get. We both spoke against corruption, but she never led the PN agenda."

Busuttil said that her death was a political murder because she was a prominent figure. "She did not die because of some quarrel with the grocer. She was murdered because she used her right to speak freely. I have been saying that our democracy is attacked. This was the final attack on democracy."

"I have no doubt that the political responsibility lies on one person only - the Prime Minister. I am not implying he did it, or that he ordered it. But he is responsible for the political scenario in which it happened."

He asked the minister to state whether he offered his resignation, or whether the Police Commissioner did the same thing. "The Prime Minister is politically over. On an EU level, at least, for sure. Go to Brussels and see for yourself. And now he intends to leave and take the role of Jean Claude Juncker."

Busuttil said that there were five police commissioners in less than five years. "Go tell this to the international media and they would believe we live in banana republic."

He said how the culture of resignations is no longer present in Malta. "Manuel Mallia resigned after the infamous shooting and I salute the former minister for taking such action. I myself resigned after losing the election."

Reacting to the crime conference given by the Police Commissioner, he said that it was a shameful event. "A mediocre conference. It lacked organisation and professionalism. I felt like looking at a press conference from some third world country."

"What was Silvio Valletta, the husband of a government minister, doing at the press conference? It does not even go through their mind to show some integrity. Are your standards so low?" Silvio Valletta is the husband of Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana.

Holding the news articles which covered the press conference yesterday, the PN MP said that they all show how this same press conference offered no new information.

"The PL has made an ethnic cleansing of our institutions," Simon Busuttil added. 

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Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia lamented how he would have much preferred to discuss the numerous pending issues facing the Malta police force, slamming the partisan way former Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has spoken during a parliamentary debate on budget estimates for the Home Affairs Ministry.

He went on to mention how the government was making good on pending over-time payments that were supposed to have been paid to police and members of the armed forces, something that took place under a Nationalist Party government.  

Farrugia hailed the Armed Forces of Malta for their change in culture, and the stellar work being carried out overseas. He said Malta’s AFM are being praised overseas.

He condemned the murder of Caruana Galizia.

PL MP Robert Abela slammed Busuttil for not offering up any concrete proposals that would help the situation in practical terms.

PL MP Manuel Mallia said that perfection cannot be reached in Malta’s institutions because they are made of people.

“You have people against their own leader, people who throw spanners in the works, and this could happen in any human institution, such as the police force.

 “If you have a struggling boy, do you call him incompetent, put him down more and criticise him? Or do you offer a helping hand and try to get that boy back on his feet?”

He questioned the impression that former Busuttil is “trying to portray” that criminality has somehow grown under the last four years of the Labour Party (PL) government.