PL leadership hopeful Robert Abela said that he does not agree with the term “political nightmare” as a description of Malta’s current situation, although he did admit that the current period is one of difficulty, and said that he has a “clear vision” on how the country can come out of it with its reputation recovered and intact.

Abela was asked by this newsroom about the ties he had with Neville Gafa, who he was lawyer of in 2017 when Gafa had an issue over over-time payments due from the Foundation for Medical Services, Keith Schembri, who he was reportedly the lawyer of in a libel case instituted against former PN leader Simon Busuttil, and to Konrad Mizzi, with whose ministry he had served as a consultant.

He was asked what he planned on doing if elected Prime Minister to take Malta out of the political nightmare it finds itself in due to people such as the aforementioned.

Abela immediately denied that he had ever been Schembri’s lawyer, noting that this was a case of mistaken reporting by the Times of Malta.  He said that when he had to take tough positions against Schembri, he had no problem in doing so even if there were instances where he was alone.

On his ties with Neville Gafa, Abela noted that Gafa had consulted with him as a lawyer on the aforementioned issue with the Foundation for Medical Services, but noted that he has no other connection with him.

On what he would do, Abela said that he firstly did not agree with the use of the term “political nightmare”. “I don’t agree with you that it is a political nightmare; we are a passing through a period of difficulty, yes, but let’s not make it bigger than it is”, he said.

He said that he has a clear vision on how the country can emerge from the situation wherein the country can return to political stability within a few weeks.

He noted that the instability is due to the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia where the position should be simple; that total faith is given to the investigators, that the police commissioner is allowed to continue with his investigations, and that there are no “witch hunts”.

“The easiest thing I can do is to do a witch hunt against person A, B, or C. Doing that would be an injustice in itself”, he said.

He said that every person, allegation and every place where people felt there may be obstruction of justice should be investigated.

Asked why he had not taken on the role of Minister in Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in 2017, Abela remained coy saying that what was discussed between him and the Prime Minister will remain between him and the Prime Minister. 

However he said that he had spent the last two years and a half worked practically non-stop as the consultant to the cabinet and had the role of overseeing all the ministries and preparing their minutes, meaning that he knows where the government’s strengths and weaknesses are.