Prime Minister Joseph Muscat should resign were he to follow his own declarations, the Nationalist Party said today.
PM Muscat had said Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi should resign if he were found to have lied. But what was revealed by the Panama Papers has shown that the Prime Minister has lied when he defended what Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri against the largest international corruption and criminal scandal.
Using his own yardstick, the PM should therefore resign.
Addressing the media today, PN shadow minister for Gozo Chris Said said that PM Muscat made the statement on Konrad Mizzi’s resignation on 9 March during the programme Dissett.
Now it has resulted that PM Muscat had lied when he said that Konrad Mizzi opened a company in Panama and a trust in New Zealand to place his property in London and Malta in them. Dr Muscat had said this on the day when Konrad Mizzi was elected to the post of PL deputy leader, on 25 February.
It has since transpired that the company opened by Mizzi and Schembri in Panama were not for the reasons given by PM Muscat, but for them to place money coming from consultancies and brokerage. When this version was not believed, it was said that the companies were for money made from recycling and remote gaming, Dr Said said.
This meant that the Prime Minister had been caught lying to defend his right and left hand men, and so he should resign, Dr Said added.
Shadow Minister Claudette Buttigieg said PM Muscat said a series of lies with regard to the Panamagate scandal, which has now been ongoing for two months.
PM Muscat lied when he said he did not know that Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi were discussing how to open companies in Panama. If it had been true that he did not know anything, he would have sacked them immediately the story became public, she said.
It is evident that, to defend his colleagues and friends, PM Muscat will rely on an audit which will be fake. Mizzi and Schmebri had opened up their companies in Panama specifically for an audit to find nothing.
PM Muscat also lied when he said that Mizzi had paid a fine for not disclosing the company to the Income Tax Commissioner and then saying that the fine had, in fact, not been paid, Dr Buttigieg said.
Photos Jonathan Borg