The Prime Minister yesterday addressed the Labour Party’s General Conference, and the most noteworthy thing that he said was the PN was bringing Panama to Malta through its cedoli scheme.

It took a few listens to twig onto just how big a statement the Prime Minister made. Dr Muscat said that the issue was not one of legality but of ‘correctness’. He said that while there might be doubts on the legality of such a scheme, there was not doubts in terms of it being corrupt.

He said that the introduction of a such a scheme favours corruption and by implementing it, the Nationalist Party was bringing Panama to Malta. “Busuttil can say his scheme is legal. Even in Panama, companies are legal. But the question once again is about correctness. This is not a ‘correct’ scheme, it is corrupt.”

Sit for an instance and let that sink in. The Prime Minister has gone on record saying that the PN’s is a corrupt scheme and that it is bringing Panama to Malta. By default, his reasoning is therefore that Panama is a corrupt jurisdiction.

There he went yesterday, singing platitudes and telling us all just how much the government has done to tackle corruption with the introduction of Party Financing Laws, the Whistleblower Act, removal of time-barring for prosecution of crime relating to corruption and more. All the while, he continues to back his Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and his most powerful minister and deputy Labour Party leader Konrad Mizzi who both own companies in Panama. How does that tally? How does that even equate? Does the Prime Minister realise that he has just admitted that Panama is a corrupt jurisdiction and that the PN is just as corrupt, while retaining two men that actively pursued ‘business’ interests there?

Is the PM aware that the two individuals have holdings in a jurisdiction that he himself has just labelled as being corrupt? The PN has used one word to sum up its reaction to the PM’s speech: “surreal”.  We prefer another “incredible”.

 The Prime Minister has stood by his position to not take any action against them until audits are carried out. It seems that this whole saga has taken on a life of its own and the Prime Minister seems to just be winging it and taking decisions on the fly. He has left himself all avenues open, including what seemed to be a very orchestrated speech by Konrad Mizzi himself last week, where he said that he would leave his political future in the hands of the Prime Minister to decide on. The Prime Minister has spoken of the anger he feels amongst the general public. Yet for nigh on seven weeks, we have had countless twists and turns and new revelations in the press about the whole sordid affair every single day.

So. To sum it all up, if the Prime Minister believes that Panama is a corrupt jurisdiction, then reason therefore dictates that his right hand and left hand men invested in a corrupt jurisdiction. That enough warrants censure and more. Yet the Prime Minister has done nothing, continues to do nothing and will probably change his tune many times over by the time the whole truth comes out.