Karol Aquilina has tendered his resignation as the Nationalist Party spokesperson for justice and electoral reform and as the parliamentary group’s secretary after he was advised by police that legal action will be taken against him over a driving incident two years ago.
The incident in question occurred in June 2019, where Aquilina allegedly refused to obey police instructions while driving. The incident was first brought to light by Labour television host Karl Stagno Navarra, who used his evening show ‘Pjazza’ to share footage from a vehicle’s dashcam showing the incident.
The footage, Stagno Navarra had alleged, shows Aquilina blocking the route of a ministerial vehicle as it drove to the airport after a European delegation meeting despite orders to the contrary from two police officers on motorbikes.
Sharing an email he sent to PN leader Bernard Grech, Aquilina said that he is innocent of the charges being brought before him, and that he will fight to prove this in court.
Dalgħodu ġejt notifikat mill-Pulizija li se jittieħdu passi fil-konfront tiegħi b'rabta ma' dak li seħħ f'Ġunju ta'...
Posted by Karol Aquilina on Tuesday, March 30, 2021
He said that he is sure that, regardless of this, there will be people who will use this news for political gain and to try and deviate the attention of the people off the “obscene” scandals that have taken over the Labour government.
In his email to Grech, Aquilina said that he had tendered his resignation in order to uphold the highest ethical and behavioural standards required of a politician.
On Facebook, Aquilina reminded that when Owen Bonnici – a government minister – had faced driving-related accusations in court, he had held onto his post as Justice Minister.
“The PN believes in and practices standards which are far higher than those of the Labour Party. I want this resignation to serve as an example that we don’t just talk about our standards, but we live them and put them into practice”, Aquilina said.
In a statement, PN leader Bernard Grech said that he had accepted Aquilina's resignation from his internal party role.
He too said that these are the standards which the PN believes in, and said that this is to the contrary of the Prime Minister, who in a much more serious case related to Education Minister Justyne Caruana and the granting of a €15,000 contract to someone with no qualifications, had not taken action against the person who carried this out.
The party said that it had appointed Joe Ellis as its spokesperson on Justice and Electoral Reform, and that party whip Robert Cutajar will take the post of parliamentary group secretary.