The Nationalist Party has said that it is impossible that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat did not know about the expropriation of property that allowed Mark Gaffarena to make a profit of €685,000 in less than two months as well as acquiring land bigger than 10 football pitches.

Addressing a press conference on the steps of Castille, shadow minister Jason Azzopardi said the Lands Department is, for the first time, under the responsibility of the Prime Minister.

The government paid €1.65 million for half ownership of the property that Mr Gaffarena had bought for a fraction of the price just two weeks before.

The property is in Old Mint Street and houses a school and government offices. Mr Gaffarena bought the property on 26 February for €139,762 and the government expropriated it on 10 April for €822,500 in land and cash.

He said that this scandal took place when the media was dissecting the Auditor General’s report on the Cafe Premier bail-out. Is it possible that nobody from the Lands Department alerted Dr Muscat on the issue? he asked. It cannot have been that Dr Muscat was not aware of this, he continued.

Dr Azzopardi said that the issue tied to the property in question stinks to say the least.

He said that if the Prime Minister still thinks that everyone believes what he says, he is mistaken.

He called on Dr Muscat to make the file in question public so that the procedure used in this “revolting scandal” can be scrutinised. He said that each time there’s Dr Muscat’s involvement, there’s a smell of corruption, reminding Dr Muscat that this is the third scandal following the Australia Hall and Cafe Premier ones.

When asked by journalists why Dr Azzopardi was blaming Dr Muscat when it could be the case that someone at the Lands Department is behind this and should shoulder responsibility, Dr Azzopardi said that Dr Muscat should do what he expects others to do and come clean and shoulder political responsibility.

He said that the government has the funds to engage in significant pay-outs, such as in this case and that of Cafe Premier, but did not have funds to help cancer patients sustain their hefty medicine bills.