'Channel your anger' Delia tells Malta

The people’s anger at government corruption must be channelled into the search for truth and efforts to punish wrongdoers, according to PN leader Adrian Delia.

Interviewed on his party’s media this morning, the Leader of the Opposition criticised PM Robert Abela as being reactive and politically immature, “waiting for others to make the first move,” especially with regards to his handling of the COVID-19 situation, reminding the audience that the Prime Minister had still gone ahead with a planned holiday in the middle of the pandemic.

Delia highlighted once again the plight of people at risk of poverty in Malta, in particular the elderly and single parents. “Nobody from government is talking about this, but the PN is saying that these people should not suffer. This is a country where we were boasting of a surplus and then have 23,000 people at serious risk of poverty.”

He also touched upon what he described as “the people’s anger” at the news emerging from the courts about the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. “The police, instead of protecting the public from criminality, were protecting the criminal… We have a Police Commissioner who rendered himself complicit, the Attorney General giving direction to hold back from prosecuting politicians, the highest office in the land involved in the cover up of a murder.

This is a thing which provokes anger. It is then surreal to speak of the reputation of the country,” Delia said.

“This anger of our people must be channelled into the search for truth”.

Meanwhile, the PN’s Finance Spokesperson, Mario de Marco has called upon Finance Minister Edward Scicluna to assume political responsibility for his actions with regard to the Electrogas power station deal.

“Scicluna was involved and gave his consent to a number of scandalous decisions taken by the Labour government over the past few years. This emerged from the testimony of his Permanent Secretary, Alfred Camilleri, in the public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia,” de Marco said in a statement on Saturday.

Camilleri had explained how the primary decisions that had a financial impact would be taken by the entire cabinet and there would be regular discussions between Scicluna and the ministers concerned about the particular project. In the case of the power station there were meetings between minister Konrad Mizzi and Edward Scicluna, Camilleri had said, bringing Scicluna’s testimony into doubt.

Alfred Camilleri also testified how he himself had called a number of meetings to discuss related issues, including the guarantee given by the Government to Electrogas over its purchase of the power station and that Scicluna was receiving regular updates on the progress of the deal.

Scicluna had claimed that he had no voice in these decisions taken by the Labour administration. “This shows how Edward Scicluna’s weak defence… does not hold water,” de Marco said. “It should be reminded that Scicluna had no qualms about arguing that he felt ‘uncomfortable’ voting aginst these decisions because he had already lost his MEP salary to contest the national elections.

“If Minister Scicluna is truly now feeling uncomfortable with the decisions he participated in, he should bear political responsibility for his actions and not just point his finger at others,” de Marco said.