Prime Minister Robert Abela today dodged a question posed by a MaltaToday journalist regarding the position of Social Housing Minister Roderick Galdes in the wake of the Siġġiewi voter fraud. In his responses, the Prime Minister blamed the Nationalist Party for inflicting this “martyrdom” onto the affected families.

PM Abela also said that as the Court gave its decision on this case last week, “people should be respected for agreeing or disagreeing with the judgement.”

Last Wednesday, a magistrate ordered police to investigate and identify the public officials and entities “who had manipulated voters into changing their address to a Siġġiewi construction site ahead of the upcoming local council and EU elections.”

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech had stated that it was “shameful that they had been taken advantage of and manipulated by people who were entrusted with looking after their interests and wellbeing.”

When asked whether Minister Galdes is still tenable to remain in Cabinet given these findings, through the cases opened by the Nationalist Party, Abela said that he is more concerned about “PN’s persecution of 84 families.”

He said that these families were provided with appropriate and affordable housing “of the highest quality” by government before stating that PN was against this project from its inception; he described that PN is “indifferent to the needs of society’s most vulnerable social classes.”

After he was asked whether the timing of this latest scandal was brazen, given that the elections are just over a fortnight away, the Prime Minister stressed that “in the incoming days/weeks, [the apartments] can be inhabited.” The Siġġiewi apartments are currently empty, though Abela said that “these families will be moving in there in the coming days.”

Abela then concluded that by affirming his government’s position to promote social housing, before addressing the affected families “to remember what they are passing through because of the Nationalist Party.”