John Dalli is insisting Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil come clean on his alleged acquaintance with the head of the EU’s anti-fraud agency.

In a tit-for-tat reply yesterday, Mr Dalli even shared what he described as words of wisdom that Dr Busuttil had better heed.

A poster attached with his e-mail read: “Insults are the last resort of insecure people with a crumbling position trying to appear confident.”

Mr Dalli was reacting to comments by the Opposition leader directed at previous remarks made by the former European Commissioner.

On Saturday Mr Dalli released a press statement asking Dr Busuttil to explain the nature of his relationship with Giovanni Kessler, the head of EU anti-fraud agency OLAF, after the two reportedly exchanged words on an Air Malta flight.

Dr Busuttil said he only met Dr Kessler by coincidence on the flight. The Opposition leader accused Mr Dalli of living a lie and insisted he should not draw him [Dr Busuttil] into his lies.

“My so-called ‘friendship’ with Giovanni Kessler is a figment of John Dalli’s imagination,” Dr Busuttil had said.

In a short statement yesterday Mr Dalli said Dr Busuttil chose to resort to insults rather than explain matters.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.