Prime Minister Robert Abela has said that the Nationalist Party is “trying to run the government as the Opposition in the minority,” saying that the party “does not believe in the basic principles of democracy.”

Speaking outside the law courts on Monday morning, Abela said that the PN wants to use the power of the courts to put pressure and try to control the actions of the Police Commissioner, the Attorney General, the State Advocate, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Government, “and then in the end, the election will come, it will lose, and it will continue running the country as the Opposition.”

The Prime Minister said that his Government decided to be part of the case opened by the Opposition pertaining to the €400 million paid to Steward in order to “prevent any damage being done within international arbitration procedures” which the government opened in relation to this matter.

The government initiated international arbitrary proceedings against those who truly need to answer in this Vitals-Steward case, the Prime Minister said. He told journalists that this international arbitration began at the start of 2023.

“If you’re going to ask me if the government kept waiting for, for example, the decision from the Court of Appeal, to take all necessary actions to defend the interests of the State, that is not the case,” said the Prime Minister. He had also said that after receiving legal advice, the most prudent direction for his government was to “respect the institutions.”

As such, Abela condemned Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech for undermining his government’s work in relation to their Vitals-Steward reaction.

“Grech is trying to make people think that these arbitration processes don’t exist and that the government did nothing – this is absolutely not true. In fact, the hospitals were granted back right after the sentence granted by the First Court.”

The Prime Minister then sent a “formal invitation” to Grech for both political sides to work in the State’s interest whenever possible. Abela said that for such instances where the national interest should unite them, “Let’s pull the same rope, we are ready to provide all the information we can to the Opposition leader,” he said.

Abela was also asked about Aaron Farrugia and the now former Minister’s removal from the cabinet following the recent cabinet reshuffle. Abela replied that he would not use the word ‘dismissal’ to describe what happened, but said that Farrugia had done a lot of good within the Labour Party since his youth, which continued when he was in government.