Abela avoids Muscat charges, Grech urges people to vote PN at party events

Prime Minister Robert Abela avoided talking about the corruption and bribery charges being faced by his predecessor, while Opposition leader Bernard Grech urged people to vote PN at separate party events on Tuesday evening.

In a speech largely focused on the Labour governments previous electoral promises, Abela said he will always speak out when there’s wrongdoing, adding that it is his duty to do so as prime minister.

“You’ve seen me speak and answer to everything – when I believe that certain procedures weren’t carried out properly, where doubt is sowed. The Establishment can attack me as much as it wants, but I will continue to speak out and act,” he said at an event in Msida.

Meanwhile, Grech spoke exclusively on the charges issued against former prime minister Joseph Muscat as part of a wider probe into the sale of three public hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare.

“It was a Nationalist government that gave private citizens the tools to request a magisterial inquiry if they felt a crime was carried out,” he said, joined by other Nationalist MPs.

He reminded people that the Nationalist Party, led by Adrian Delia at the time, had opened a court case to rescind all contracts connected to the hospitals deal.

“That day, Joseph Muscat and later Robert Abela did everything they could to make sure the case would not be won. But our courts stood strong against these attempts and ruled in the Nationalist Party’s favour, in the public’s favour.”

“We can’t not talk about the theft of our health,” he said. “There are some in hospital today that have to wait hours because there’s no space for them. That’s because, instead of investing money in hospitals, the money was split between them,” he said, referring to Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri.

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