PN MPs Ivan J. Bartolo and Ivan Castillo said that there are no issues between Opposition leader Bernard Grech and former deputy leader Robert Arrigo.
“There is no issue. The fact that he says he was hurt is normal in a workplace. I believe wherever you work, there will always be moments when you get hurt,” Bartolo said, when asked about comments made by the former deputy leader about how he was sidelined by the party.
Arrigo has accused Bernard Grech of lying in a television interview over an internal investigation on the Naxxar mayor’s behaviour. Arrigo posted on his Facebook page saying that Grech had lied when asked about the outcome of the investigation into Naxxar Mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami on TVM News Plus’s Xtra. Grech has since denied these claims in a statement.
Arrigo said in an interview over the weekend that the pain he had endured by being sidelined by the PN was worse than his diagnosis with cancer, a disease which he is currently fighting.
Questioned by the media on Arrigo’s claims against Grech, Bartolo first started by trying to shift the focus onto investigating former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s criticisms on the country’s institutions, saying that if he were a journalist this is what he would be working on.
“There are those who speak out when they are hurt, and there are those who keep it to themselves,” Bartolo said.
Castillo said the PN has always been transparent with the electorate, saying that when one says how they feel and think openly, it reflects as transparency.
“When you have a family, you will always find those who agree and disagree with each other,” Castillo said. “At the end of the day I will continue working to ensure that the PN continues moving forward.”
After the appointment of Alex Perici Calascione as new deputy leader of the PN, Arrigo has said that he felt side-lined in the election campaign. Arrigo spoke about two incidents when party functionaries stopped him from entering a PN club and another where officials asked him to stay with the crowd during a mass meeting.