Muscat’s cabinet roadshow ‘closing ears to critics’ – PN

The Nationalist Party has accused Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of silencing critics after just two years of his Cabinet’s public consultation roadshow.

The PN was reacting to reports in The Times that two unnamed businessmen who intended asking questions on the controversial Old Mint Street expropriation, that gave Marco Gaffarena €1.65 million, were told they could not ask those questions to parliamentary secretary for lands Michael Falzon.

The government has denied the contents of the report, and has accused the Opposition of itself preventing journalists from placing questions to PN leader Simon Busuttil himself during press conferences.

According to the Times, the two unnamed businessmen were told by an official from the OPM not to ask questions about the Land Department, which falls within Falzon’s portfolio. “I had booked a seat to attend the session with Dr Falzon. In the afternoon, I was contacted by a government official from the OPM telling me clearly not to ask questions about the Land Department,” one of the developers said.

“This only confirms that Muscat is choosing to isolate himself from the people, and an initiative that looks good on paper now has been turned into a charade that is being totally controlled. It only confirms Muscat’s hard-headedness,” the PN said.

The party accused Muscat of “turning Gaffarena into a multi-millionaire overnight”, paying energy minister Konrad Mizzi’s wife €13,000 monthly on her appointment as envoy, paying his MPs various salaries as political appointees in the public sector, cashing in his car allowance for an additional €7,000 a year, and paying Cyrus Engerer a salary close to €100,000 as his sherpa in Brussels.