During question time in Parliament on January 23, Planning Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri asked Nationalist MPs Jason Azzopardi and Tonio Fenech whether they were prepared to comment about Żaren Vassallo’s sworn testimony in court about the transfer of the Lowenbrau land in Qormi when he had said that he had met and spoken “to the minister” responsible for the Land Department and that he had been promised “a compromise”. In fact, he did indeed receive a very generous compromise since he saved about €7.5 million.

Both Azzopardi and Fenech remained seated and did not utter a single word.

Their silence was deafening and spoke volumes. Of course, both gentlemen know that what Vassallo had testified under oath while their feeble denials were not backed by an affidavit. Neither have they said that what Vassallo said in court was not true.

But what this enormous scandal continues to prove is that not only is the Nationalist Party not qualified to speak about corruption but that its leader, Simon Busuttil, is extremely weak. Instead of tackling this issue by confronting both Azzopardi and Fenech, he unleashed an insensate attack on Justice Minister Owen Bonnici for daring to hold press conferences on this enormous scandal. He seems to forget that this scandal came to light as a result of a report by the Auditor General who called on Azzopardi to assume political responsibility.