Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and former minister Konrad Mizzi did not only betray the country which actions that are shaming Malta’s reputation, but they also betrayed their own party and thousands of Labourites who are, like Prime Minister Abela, disgusted with their behaviour, Opposition Leader Adrian Delia said.
Interviewed by Labour Party media journalist Nicole Buttigieg, Delia said that instead of using its mandate to carry out work for the benefit of the country, there were certain episodes in which money which should have gone to the people and instead went astray. He mentioned in particular the deal regarding the transfer of three public hospitals to the private sector, and now a new scandal has erupted regarding the wind-farm in Montenegro.
Delia was referring to a report published today that 17 Black, the Dubai company owned by Yorgen Fenech, made a profit of €4.6 million from Enemalta's purchase of a windfarm in Montenegro. Fenech is charged with being the mastermind in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Many hours have passed and the Prime Minister is still to take action on the allegations made, and the police are as yet to start their investigations, Delia said.
Asked whether Yorgen Fenech had participated in the PN’s money-generating scheme via cedoli, Delia first said that he was 99.9 per cent sure that this was not the case. Later, during the same interview, he confirmed that Fenech had not been one of the people who had taken part in the initiative.
Delia said that as leader he was never offered any money for the party to hold back the candidacy of David Casa, as the Labour media was suggesting. “I have never been bribed in all spheres I worked in,” he said, be they as a lawyer, in football and as a politician.
Delia said that the Nationalist Party has worked tirelessly for the last three years to reform the party, and this reform is now to be presented before the general council. It is to be expected, he said, that during this process there were differences of opinion, and this helped the party in no small way to move forward with new ideas.
He insisted that without unity no organisation can improve itself, adding that after two heavy electoral defeats there was no other option but to change. After so much soul-searching, and also periods in which he came under fire from officials of his own party, Delia said the PN is now ready to take the next step. “Confidence is not won overnight,” he said, adding that after restructuring itself the party will now need to transmit this change to the people.
Asked about why the PN will not take part in a parliamentary session in which the person who has been proposed by the government to be the next police commissioner, Delia said that the choice has already been made. It would have been better if the two persons chosen by the Public Services Commission were brought before Parliament, and then a selection is made, rather than the Prime Minister making his choice and then expecting Parliament to endorse it.