After a long period of silence, former Parliamentary Secretary for Elderly Silvio Parnis addressed the criticism he received from the Opposition on his handling of elderly homes during the pandemic, saying he has always had people’s support and always will.

On 21 November, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced a reshuffle in which Parnis was the only casualty. What was previously Parnis’ portfolio was promoted from a parliamentary secretariat to a full-blown ministry and handed to Michael Farrugia, leaving Parnis out in the cold.

This announcement raised eyebrows, especially those of the Opposition, which had had been highly critical of Parnis after Covid-19 spread like wildfire across elderly homes towards the last quarter of 2020. Parnis had received a lot of flak particularly when he presented elderly residents with a roly poly with the word ‘Kuraġġ’ (courage) at time when there is so much concern about the spread in these homes.

Many believed that this was the reason why Parnis was removed from cabinet later on, despite him stating in a Facebook post that he was leaving politics at his own will as it is “now the time has come for me to give more time to myself and to my family.”

During Monday’s Parliamentary session, Parnis broke his silence with a direct rebuttal of the criticism that Opposition leader Bernard Grech had thrown at him at the time, wherein he said that Parnis was making fun of people’s pain.

“I’m the one who made fun of people’s pain? You were the one who set up a committee of politicians from parliament to address the pandemic when we set up a group of professionals and experts,” Parnis exclaimed.

“Yet for every elderly death, I was the one he blamed. In a pandemic that took so many lives I will stand with my head held high as I have defended, helped, supported and visited people across all 5 years of this legislature.”

He said that numbers are still in his favour, unlike the numbers Grech has, which will come back to bite him; “I have always had people’s support; I still have it and I always will.”

With regards to his termination as Parliamentary Secretary, he said that the PM showed faith in him and offered him a secretariat position. However, Parnis turned him down “as I was never attached to the seat of power, it was given to me so that I can be a servant to the people. I entered politics clean and will leave clean.”

He added that he has a good relationship with the PM and he would never do anything to hurt his own principles; “labour principles I have always believed in and no one can take away from me. I love the PL and I will never deny that, I love the people and I will never deny that either.”

He said it was not a pleasure for him to close homes and not let people visit their elderly, but he did all that he could to prevent the spread and the elderly see that as he still has good contact with them.