Prime Minister Robert Abela wants to keep wasting people's time over the hospitals scandal, the Nationalist Party said Monday.

Today in Parliament, during an urgent debate requested yesterday by Opposition and PN Leader Alex Borg, Robert Abela and his colleagues tried to give the impression that someone is living in a fantasy.

"If anyone is living in a fantasy, it is the Prime Minister and those who sat around him today once again defending the Steward contract, the same contract they pretend to have fought against in the arbitration that Steward themselves initiated against them," the PN said.

It is certainly not the Maltese and Gozitan people who are living in a fantasy, those who have been waiting for months and years on hospital waiting lists.

It is not those who spend hours waiting in the emergency department.

It is not those who cannot find the medicines they need because they are out of stock.

It is not the Gozitans who must waste their time and energy travelling to Malta to receive the healthcare services they should be getting in Gozo, the party added.

And it is not those who give up on receiving care in hospital as is their right, and end up paying thousands out of their own pockets for private treatment.

These people are not living a fantasy; they are living a nightmare. And the Prime Minister and his colleagues are so detached from people's suffering that they can never understand it, the PN said.

The only fairy tales being told are those by the Prime Minister and his colleagues every time they claim to have done something to defend the Maltese and Gozitan people over this contract.

"Robert Abela cannot be believed.

Because it was a Labour Government that colluded with Steward in a contract that robbed the Maltese people, that kept defending this fraudulent deal and kept pouring money into it, that fought against the annulment of these contracts in the case filed by Adrian Delia, and kept repeating the lie that Steward did not owe the Maltese and Gozitan people a single cent, the PN said.

The irony is that this same Labour Government then went before the International Chamber of Commerce tribunal quoting the very court judgment filed by Adrian Delia, and demanded almost €500 million back from Steward.

Robert Abela and his colleagues have gone round in circles and are now trying to sing victory.

The truth is that while they went to fight to get the Maltese people's money back, thus admitting that the deal was indeed fraudulent, they returned to Malta not with money, but with yet another bill of €5 million, the PN said.

And yet they still want the Maltese and Gozitan people to believe they have somehow won.

The Maltese and Gozitan people now know that a Labour Government defends everyone except them.

The latest confirmation of this comes from the very judgment that Robert Abela himself placed on Parliament's table today, but conveniently forgot to quote:

"Sadly, the concession for these hospitals turned out to be a failure and gave rise to different proceedings, including before the Courts of Malta. The primary victims of this failure are the citizens of Malta who were anxious of receiving through a private public partnership improved health care services in an improved hospital environment in their beautiful country."

The real victory for the Maltese and Gozitan people will come when they have a government that goes to court to defend them, not the criminals who robbed them, the PN said.