20:28 Updated with PL reaction
Today’s reshuffle confirmed Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was being “blackmailed”, Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil has said.
“As of today, Joseph Muscat is personally involved. He is an accomplice of Konrad Mizzi’s and Keith Schembri’s. Today confirmed it,” he told journalists at a press conference at Parliament.
Calling the reshuffle “a huge insult to people’s intelligence,” Dr Busuttil mocked the Prime Minister’s claims of decisiveness.
“He decided to not decide,” he said. “From now onwards, everyone will take his words with a pinch of salt.”
He noted that despite the reshuffle announcement, “everyone will be going to bed tonight with [Dr] Mizzi and [Mr] Schembri in Castille alongside Joseph Muscat.”
To add insult to injury, he added, [former Home Affairs minister] Manuel Mallia was now back in Cabinet. Dr Mallia had been forced to resign in 2014 following an inquiry into a shooting incident involving his driver.
Reappointing Dr Mallia to Cabinet “simply made today’s events even more ridiculous”.
He said the PN would be doing everything within its power, “both in Parliament and outside”, to get Dr Muscat, Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri to step down.
The Opposition leader brushed aside questions about his deputy leader Mario de Marco, saying there was no evidence Dr de Marco had done anything wrong in using “the same contractor as [EU Funds junior minister] Ian Borg.”
Dr de Marco has been accused of only paying for construction works done on his property by a contractor implicated in the Panama Papers scandal after the matter had hit the headlines.
He reiterated calls for police to start investigating the Panama affairs of Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri, and argued that police had the duty to investigate “every single decision and contract Dr Mizzi was involved in during the past three years.”
Busuttil lied, says PL
In a reaction, the PL said Dr Busuttil had lied in claiming that Dr de Marco had presented receipts for construction works done on his property by Redmap Limited.
"It's clear the Opposition Leader is very uncomfortable answering questions about Mario de Marco," the PL said. "So uncomfortable that he ended up lying."