Parliamentary Secretary Alex Muscat had to withdraw what he said against former PN Leader Adrian Delia following a ruling by the Speaker, who found the Parliamentary Secretary to be in breach of parliamentary privilege after a complaint by the Nationalist MP.

Delia invoked a standing order against a statement made by Muscat, wher the latter had said that Delia “was not capable of standing up to the European MPs” and that “we now know that someone went to ask for money from someone so that David Casa does not get elected for the European parliament”.

In his explanation, Muscat said that he was repeating what was said in court and recorded by various news outlets. The Malta Independent was one of the newspapers that reported what Keith Schembri had alleged in court.

However, the Speaker ruled that there was a pima facie breach of parliamentary privilege and asked Muscat to take back his comments, which he did.

“I did not take any money so that a candidate [Casa] for the European Parliament does not get elected as Alex Muscat alleged,” Delia said in a Facebook post after Muscat’s withdrawal.

“I will never tolerate them continuing to lie about me and the ruling of the Speaker gave me a reason.”