Updated | MP, former mayor file defamation suit over PN sticker album

The Nationalist Party has received its first libel suit over the inclusion of former St Paul’s Bay mayor Mario Salerno (PL) in its mock ‘sticker album’ on Labour political appointees.

Salerno, president of the Malta Organic Agriculture Movement, is chairman of the government authority on organic farming.

His libel suit was signed by lawyer John Bonello, formerly the international secretary of the PN.

“Salerno categorically denies ever having been paid for his services as chairman, and he has never been nominated by the government to any other public position,” Bonello said in a statement.

“Salerno serves as chairman on a voluntary basis, which means the PN’s insinuations about him are intended at bringing him into disrepute.”

In his suit, Salerno claims comments by Beppe Fenech Adami, the PN deputy leader for party affairs, that the people in the sticker album were “profiting from the government”, that they had “grabbed as much as they could” and that they were being “paid phenomenally” or receiving “luxurious perks”, were untrue allegations.

MEP candidate Deborah Schembri, the Labour MP, also filed a defamation suit over Fenech Adami’s comments.

“His allegations are simply based on the fact that I am an MP and chairperson of the parlimentary social affairs committee – my functions were determined by the electorate’s will, and not by the government,” the MP said. “This is an attack on the country’s institutions.”