[WATCH] Muscat insists he charged Dubai holiday to personal credit card

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has pushed back against criticism of an €11,000 family holiday to Dubai he took last year, arguing that he has a "right to make choices for his family," while reiterating that he paid for the holiday himself.

Muscat was answering journalists' questions following an address he gave to the European Trade Union Confederation when he was asked about whether the amount of money spent during the holiday was disrespectful towards a large portion of the population that barely made that amount in a year.

The Nationalist Party is resurrecting questions on an expensive €11,000 holiday taken out by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his family in 2016, following on a report by Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia on a visa receipt she claims was charged to Muscat’s account.

“To set the record straight, you’ve been saying that I earn a lot more for a very long time, especially when you include my car allowance, which was conveniently left out this time,” Muscat told a PN journalist. “I have a right to make choices for my family and after a year of being accused of letting others pay for my holiday it has now emerged that I did in fact pay for it myself.”

He pointed out that Nationalist Party president Ann Fenech had previously boasted about receiving a €10,000 donation from a pensioner and stressed that the holiday paid for using his own credit card, which he paid over a period of six months, adding that he has bank statements to show for it.

Last year the PN was insisting that the seven-day holiday in Dubai is not affordable on the salary of a Maltese Prime Minister and that Muscat should publish receipts of his Easter holiday. Muscat is reported to have spent his 2016 Easter break at the Hotel Atlantis, The Palms.

Muscat has told reporters that he personally pays for his holidays.

“As the receipt shows, the Prime Minister paid through his credit card, with which he paid off throughout the year in recorded banking transactions. It would be transparent of the Opposition leader to publish the false invoices his party’s companies issued in breach of the party financing rules. This is only a desperate attempt to avoid having to prove that these were ‘dirty’ donations,” the OPM said.

In his declaration of assets filed in 2016, the Prime Minister declared €75,000 deposited in a Bank of Valletta account. In the income tax return, Muscat declared earning €52,024 as prime minister. This figure excludes allowances.