[WATCH] Adrian Delia: 'Malta is no Mafia state'

Malta is no Mafia state and everyone should fight that label, Opposition leader Adrian Delia told a PN political activity on Sunday. "Although led by a corrupt government, this country encompasses everyone, including journalists, the Opposition, the general public and everyone's children."

Delia, addressing a political activity at the PN club in Marsa, said he did not approve of his country being called a Mafia state.

“The State is all of us – the Opposition, the people, the journalists, and our children – all form part of our country,” he said. “We should combat that label, because we are not a mafia state. We just have a corrupt government.”

In reference to the publication this week of the report by the EU's PANA committee on the Panama Papers scandal, Delia said the committee had only confirmed what the PN has been saying for years.

“The PANA Committee said that we have problems,” he said. "But the Nationalist party has been saying this for years.”

Delia said that it was particularly worrying that it was those individuals who blow the lid off instances of corruption and wrongdoing are the ones who get labeled as traitors – rather than the wrongdoers themselves.

Delia stressed that it was the government’s failure to keep the country safe, and not migration itself, that is responsible for the upsurge in crime in the country.

He said that while Malta was considered the safest country in Europe until recently, it was now becoming a country in which its citizens were afraid of staying home alone or allowing their children to use public transport. Delia blamed the improper functioning of the police force, which he said is not present where it is most needed.

The government was bragging about a surplus, and yet this surplus was not being invested in the institutions which require it, according to Delia.

“This not only applies to the police force, but other institutions as well,” he said, explaining how the roofs at Mt Carmel Hospital are collapsing. He said that this is shocking since we have become accustomed to hearing that the healthcare system has improved under the current government.