Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has called on the Prime Minister to take a stand on the actions of Gozo Minister Anton Refalo over the ferry controversy.
Dr Busuttil said people expected the Prime Minister to say what he would do after a Gozo Channel ferry was ordered to return to Ċirkewwa after Dr Refalo made a phone call.
Speaking during a political meeting in Żebbuġ, Dr Busuttil referred to yesterday’s The Sunday Times of Malta editorial calling for Dr Refalo’s resignation and a front page item reporting that the minister had called his canvasser and not the ferry’s duty manager about the matter, as Gozo Channel said last week.
Either he lost control of his people or he approves
Dr Busuttil said there were so many cases of abuse of power in Dr Muscat’s government that “either he lost control of his people or he approves”.
There was a “clear lie” in the case of the Gozo Channel ferry story, he said.
He pointed out that the previous chairman of the ferry company had resigned when a similar incident happened. “We (the Nationalist government) had asked him to step down and he did… even though he was recently appointed as consultant to the Labour Government. But the point is that we asked him to resign and he did,” he said.
This was an opportunity to ascertain the standards of the Labour government, Dr Busuttil added.
The Government was trying to find a scapegoat in every scandal related to the public sector and “had lost all sense of shame”.
Turning to the Opposition’s walkout from Parliament in protest at a Speaker’s ruling against Dr Busuttil over a breach of privilege complaint, he described the decision as “trying to muzzle the Opposition”.
“We didn’t accept it and we will never accept that the Opposition is held back from saying what it has to,” he said.
The Speaker gave his ruling following a breach of privilege complaint raised by the Prime Minister who objected to Dr Busuttil accusing him of political interference in the John Dalli case after former Police Commissioner John Rizzo testified in court that, with the backing of the Attorney General, he had intended to prosecute Mr Dalli over the tobacco scandal.
Dr Busuttil insisted yesterday there was “political interference in the investigation”. It was a “clear” but “motivated” accusation and the Opposition’s argument on the matter was clear.
He pointed out that Mr Rizzo had made three important points when he testified in court: he had built a case to take to court, the Attorney General agreed with him and Mr Rizzo had said he had no political interference from the PN Administration.
However, the change of government brought about a change in Police Commissioner and Mr Rizzo was replaced by someone who was close to the Labour Party.
The new Police Commissioner “personally interfered” for the case against Mr Dalli to be dropped, Dr Busuttil claimed. Mr Dalli returned to Malta and was appointed a government consultant.
“We are ready to state this without fear. It is not a question of Dalli’s guilt or not but the [Police] commissioner cannot stop the course of justice in this way,” he said.
Dr Busuttil asked who would shoulder the political responsibility of this decision and insisted that the Opposition was ready to do its duty “without fear”.
It would continue contesting the ruling in Parliament and, if need be, was “ready” to take it to the Constitutional Court and even to European Court for Human Rights, he said.
The Labour Party said the Opposition was being “negative” at a time when the country was moving forward in the right direction.