Former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has taken aim at critics who criticised comments he made about articles that appeared in the British tabloid 'The Sun' which painted Malta in a bad light.

One of the articles in 'The Sun' described Malta as an ideal location for Brits to enjoy "good food, cheap booze and legal weed".

Among other things, Gonzi had displayed his dissatisfaction over the country's worsening image, highlighting how just 5 years ago in 2018, Malta was contrastingly being praised for having Valletta selected as one of the European Capitals of Culture for that year, an initiative which Gonzi said was an initiative his government had led. Now, he said, "we are being painted as a country where English can come to pig out on good food, drink and cannabis."

However the former PM has been criticised over his comments by some sectors.

Reacting to critics, Gonzi said: "So two days ago I wrone about two articles published in an English newspaper that painted our country in the most negative way, that causes major damage to our tourism sector. Now, it seems there are those who want to say that what is happening right now is happening because in 2006, when I was Prime Minister, my government managed to agree with Ryanair to start operating from our country for the first time."

"Could you understand this? So according to these people, what is happening today in the tourism sector is all the fault of a decision we had taken 17 years ago to strengthen this crucial economic sector. You know what I know? In our time tourism grew, the economy strengthened and we opened new economic sectors, we strongly invested in education, we made a success out of joining the EU, we entered the Euro without any bumps, we won a good reputation for Malta and Malta was sought for what truly made it special and unique in the Mediterranean."