PM willing to discuss party-funding law

The Prime Minister said he is willing to agree with his political rivals on the regulation of party funding.

"I have no problem if Labour and the other parties agree... As party leader I support the idea," Lawrence Gonzi replied when questioned in the wake of the recent controversy involving the holiday his party's general secretary, Joe Saliba, had with construction magnate Zaren Vassallo.

Replying to questions by Illum editor Kurt Sansone during an interview at the PN club in Rabat yesterday, Dr Gonzi even pledged to lay bare the party's accounts if his political opponents play ball, echoing the comments Mr Saliba himself made in an interview with The Times last Saturday day.

To date, Malta remains among a few European states without legislation that would force political parties to disclose the sources of their finances, probably including donations from large-scale entrepreneurs.

About Mr Saliba's holiday, the Prime Minister emphasised that Mr Vassallo is a declared Nationalist activist, who even served as a mayor under the PN banner.

"Mr Vassallo's connection with the party is known to all; there is nothing clandestine about it. Everything was out in the open, as opposed to Labour's trip to Dubai," he said, recalling a trip by a Labour delegation to Dubai at the same time as a group of contractors known to be MLP sympathisers.

In Mr Saliba's case, Dr Gonzi said he found Labour's insinuations of wrongdoing even more baseless, given that, up till recently, Labour was publicising Mr Vassallo's frustrations at having lost the bid for the reconstruction of the Sant'Antnin waste recycling plant to Polidano Brothers.

"It seems this relationship with Joe Saliba is working against him not in his favour," Dr Gonzi remarked, at which point the interviewer pointed out that Mr Vassallo had been awarded other contracts. "Well, if you continue on this train of thought it's never ending," was the Prime Minister's reply.

Despite being in a clearly combative, electoral mood, the Prime Minister again refused to end speculation about the election date, saying he would decide when he feels it's in the best interest of the country.

He kept linking his replies to Mr Sansone's questions - a welcome change to the usual friendly fire Dr Gonzi is afforded at party activities - to the financial turnaround his party managed to secure over the past three years.

From the Mater Dei Hospital to the Grand Harbour regeneration plan launched on Saturday, Dr Gonzi said nothing would have been possible had it not been for the government's successful financial planning and its EU accession vision.

On the new hospital, he said the migration date for staff from St Luke's Hospital could be round the corner.

Turning to hunting, he said the government had stuck to its promise to open the autumn season but warned hunters that, should there be any illegal massacres similar to the ones that took place last spring, the government would not hesitate to "take decisions it has shown it had the courage to take".

"I will not jeopardise Malta's reputation with the EU for a few... Unfortunately, even if there are a few, the good with suffer with the bad," he said.