Chris Fearne’s refusal to withdraw his resignation from the Cabinet is in itself a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Robert Abela, Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech said Friday.

Speaking in Munxar, Grech said that Fearne’s resignation, and his refusal to withdraw it, shows that he has understood the situation more than Abela.

European Funds Minister Fearne submitted his resignation earlier Friday after he was charged with criminal offences following the conclusion of the magisterial inquiry into the Vitals deal reached by the government to transfer three public hospitals to the private sector. PM Abela asked him to reconsider by Fearne rejected the PM's request.

Fearne did the right thing – although he waited a bit too much, Grech said. It is Abela who is not doing the right thing by attacking the judiciary and the media, and for his incendiary speeches pitting the Maltese against each other, he added.

The country deserves better, Grech said. Those who created the problem cannot be part of the solution, and the country needs to be rescued from the grip of criminals. In 2013, they won the election with the slogan “Malta Taghna Lkoll” (Malta belongs to everyone), but they did not fulfil their promise. Instead, they made Malta their own, and this is unacceptable, Grech said.

It is time to separate the wheat from the chaff, he said. All the Prime Minister seeks is to retain power, and he puts the interests of his party before those of the country, Grech said.

He said that Labour is lying when it says that the PN, when in government, wanted to develop a yacht marina in Hondoq ir-Rummien. The PN leader showed his audience copies of articles published in It-Torca before the 1998 election in which Labour had promised to have a yacht marina in this picturesque and as yet untouched bay.