Malta’s Parliament and the debts owned by the government were the target of an eight-minut clip shown on Italia Uno’s Le Iene show on Sunday night.

Malta still owes €3.5 million to Parma company CFF Filiberti, which had won a  contract in 2011 to provide services for the Renzo Piano parliament.

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The contractor says that the problems with the payments started as soon as Labour was elected to government in 2013. He adds that this situation has brought the company to its knees and it has been unable to pay its wages, apart from losing credibility with the banks. He says that Malta offered to pay up 500,000 euros but this is not acceptable.

The Le Iene journalist chases Prime Minister Muscat asking for the money, to which Dr Muscat admits that this is the case, but promises that Malta will pay up. When the journalist points out that Malta should not have a reputation for not paying its debts, Dr Muscat retorts that Italy has its own reputations to take care of. He says that Malta is unhappy with some of the work that was carried out.

The feature also includes an interview with the chairman of the Grand Harbour Regeneration Committee, Stefan Zeinzo Azzopardi, who says that the sum claimed by the Italian company is not the right one.

The journalist is later seen approaching MPs and pretends to run away with their mobile phones as payment for the debts owed. The feature ends up with the journalist breaking through parliament security before being dragged out by police.