Prior to 2013 Malta was in a phase of sleep, and the government has been in a process of modernization ever since Labour was elected into office, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Sunday morning.

Speaking at a party event at St Paul’s Bay, Muscat said that technology was not the only sector that was being modernized, but also other sectors such as laws, health, local government and institutions amongst others.

“What we are doing is making sure that this country is not only prepared for today, but read for tomorrow.”

The Prime Minister also spoke of the introduction of a law that does away with time-barring on charges that a politician might face, insisting that “allegations will now follow a politician to his deathbed”. He also brought up the legislation that regulated the financing of political parties.

Muscat said that following the rule of law delegation that visited Malta in September 2018, the Venice Commission was welcomed to help provide conclusions on where Malta was lacking. Although, the government’s request actually came after the Venice Commission had confirmed it would look into Malta’s situation.

“Countries criticizing Malta, possibly to take scrutiny off their administrations, are attacking the laws we inherited from a PN government but never the current laws that have modernized the nation.”

“Our institutions in their silence not only work hard and diligently, but constantly provide results, and I want to give my unconditional support to the country’s institutions because I know the situation they are in due to the criticism they are receiving.”

He appealed to the Nationalist leader, saying that you run the country by defending the institutions and not by attacking them.

“The difference between this government and the opposition is that the latter provides empty and deceitful rhetoric but no results, while the government constantly provides results, reflective of hardworking institutions.”

Indirectly referring to a newspaper report that claims that a criminal investigation into 17 Black has been launched, the PM said it was not his role to decide whether people were guilty or not.

The country’s institutions had to be given the time and space to work, he said.

“God forbid we end up in a situation where the Prime Minister decides who is guilty or not. That is not division of power”, Muscat said, adding that the country’s institutions had his unconditional support.

PN statement

In a statement, the PN said the PM could not be credible when saying that he wanted to work with the Opposition against corruption as long as he retained Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi by his side. 

It said Muscat was refusing to act to safeguard Malta’s reputation, which was being threatened by the interest of the duo.

While the PM said he would wait for the outcome of a magisterial inquiry, no such process was taking place because Muscat was appealing it.