PN leader Bernard Grech challenged Prime Minister Robert Abela to “denounce” his predecessor Joseph Muscat, whom he blamed as being the person who led the country onto the FATF’s greylist.

Speaking in Parliament on Monday morning about Wednesday’s greylisting, Grech noted how Abela had, in his election campaign for the post of Labour Party leader after Muscat, campaigned on the basis of continuity, and that he had been “shoulder to shoulder” with Muscat and part of his Cabinet as a consultant.

“Your predecessor said that L-Aqwa Zmien is still coming.  People out there are not saying that L-Aqwa Zmien has finished”, Grech said.

“If you want to show the people that you want this shadow removed: denounce Joseph Muscat. Admit that he brought us into this situation.  Admit that this is his legacy.  I challenge you to do it now.  If you don’t, then I must say that you are content with what Joseph Muscat brought upon us”, Grech said.

Grech was speaking during a debate on the financial estimates for Jobsplus, but dedicated his speech to the FATF’s decision to greylist Malta – a decision which may have major repercussions on the country’s financial services sector and its ability to attract foreign investment.

Grech said that it seemed as if Finance Minister Clyde Caruana – who spoke before Grech – was either too afraid or too ashamed to say that the biggest challenge which the country is going to face is the certification which the PL had managed to “achieve” from the FATF.

“This is your certificate; one which you hung around the Maltese people’s necks because of the last eight years”, Grech said.

“They want us and the people to believe, that it’s business as usual now. They are not realising that for us to come out of this crisis, which they themselves got us into, we need a different way of politics”, he added.

He lamented that the government had not issued a single proposal to get the country out of the situation thus far, noting that it’s almost as if they think that the issue will pass by itself.

“People out there are realising that the clichés and the back-patting are not taking us forward”, Grech said.

He noted that the Prime Minister had said that they want to put the people at the centre of their politics.

“About time – a welcome change from putting Joseph Muscat, your friends, or yourselves at the centre of your politics”, Grech jibed at the government benches.

“The reality is, you come into here, vote for them, defend them – and then you have the gall to blame other people when the consequences for your decision happen”, Grech continued.

Grech said that what saddens him most is that it is the workers who will suffer the consequences of this greylisting the most and that foreign investment which had been so important for Malta will dry up.

“It’s the workers who are going to suffer.  Your friends, who are going here, there and everywhere to watch football matches, are not going to suffer”, he said.

He said that PN had been responsible in its position for a national task force – which was rejected by the government, but which Grech re-emphasised the need for in his speech – but noted that this should not be construed as a sign of weakness.

“We make choices which are in the best interest of the people, even if they make us look weaker”, he said.

Grech again called on the Prime Minister to show some “humility” and accept the PN’s idea for a national task force so that politics can be put aside and so that experts can be listened to.

He said that the Opposition was going to ask the government to table all its correspondence with the FATF and the exact action plan which they had received, and would also be proposing a Parliamentary Committee to be set up on this issue, which would include stakeholders and experts.

“Parliament cannot be absent from this discussion – if it is, it would prove that this House exists only to rubber stamp the government”, Grech said.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said that working in silence to get off the greylist is the most important thing, and not a public confrontation on this topic. He said he will work to get Malta off the list as quickly as possible.

He insisted that he will not be taking the greylisting lightly and reiterated that the government will not revise its economic projections due to greylisting.

Caruana again said the government will not be revising its economic projections due to the greylisting.