Maltese MEP Alex Agius Saliba has said that his political group within the European Parliament - the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) - has never given its support for the European Parliament to debate the rule of law in Malta this week, contrasting what the PN stated on Sunday.

The European Parliament is set to hold a debate on the rule of law in Malta on Tuesday afternoon. The Maltese Labour Party, headed by Prime Minister Robert Abela, is saying that this debate is only taking place after being pushed for by PN MEPs and that "they are trying to paint a picture that in our country rule of law is weak."

After the Nationalist Party issued a party statement saying that this EP debate is only going to be held because it was agreed and backed by the European Socialists (S&D) - under which PL MEPs fall in - Alex Agius Saliba has declared that the PN's statement is "full of lies."

Agius Saliba, who is one of S&D's Vice-Presidents, wrote on his social media pages that as confirmed by the S&D's Head of Communications Department, S&D never actually gave its support for this debate to be held.

In his social media post, the PL MEP published a screenshot of an e-mail he received from S&D's principal communications person, Utta Tuttlies, in which she wrote to him that "S&D opposed the debate and never supported to put it on the plenary agenda."

Following this reply, Agius Saliba declared that "the Socialist Group never supported the debate against Malta that was instigated by Alex Borg and David Casa. Not only that, but it opposed this debate from being held during last week's meeting in which the agenda for this week's plenary session was agreed."

PL MEP Agius Saliba noted that this is "another black on white confirmation of the PN's lies and panic."

David Casa tells Agius Saliba to stop digging himself a hole

Shortly after Agius Saliba published this social media post, long-time PN MEP David Casa responded on his social media page. Casa criticised that Agius Saliba had promised to give evidence of this through an official statement written by the S&D Group, but instead, "he uploaded a screenshot of an e-mail from who knows who."

Casa added a closing remark directed to the PL MEP, advising him that "when one is in a hole, it would be better to stop digging."