The Nationalist Party will continue to defend the interest of the country and make a difference, PN Leader Bernard Grech said on Saturday.
In an address to the people, Grech said that despite a court declaring that the Vitals and Stewards hospitals deal was fraudulent, the Prime Minister Robert Abela is still defending Stewards Health care.
Grech was referring to a judgment which annulled a government deal that had seen the privatisation of three hospitals.
In his address Saturday, Grech said that the PM had first said that he wanted to study the judgment and then, realising the impact it had had on the public, had said the government will take legal action to recover funds from the company. But then the government chose not to support an Opposition motion in Parliament, describing the deal as fraudulent as the court had done. This means that Abela does not really believe what he says.
Referring to Robert Abela’s speech in parliament, Grech said it seems that the Prime Minister has become Stewards main legal representative.
“He was continuously saying that they (Stewards) did a lot for the country,” Grech said.
Several contractual promises had remained unfulfilled by Stewards Healthcare such as the building of a new hospital for Gozo, the rehabilitation of St Luke’s and Karin Grech Hospitals. This shows how much Abela is lying, Grech said.
“By all this you (addressing the people) know that Robert Abela is lying, when he is defending Steward as even the court declared that they did nothing”.
He said that on the one hand Abela says he accepts the court judgment on the Steward deal and at the same time then does nothing to defend the people of Malta and Gozo to get the money back.
“As an opposition we are going to remain strong in front even those who stop up from speaking in parliament,” Grech said, a reference to Thursday when the Opposition walked out of the House of Representatives declaring that it had been rendered a “parody of democracy”.
He explained how the opposition had been continuously interrupted, adding that the Speaker was an accomplice with the government on the matter.