The prime minister's actions or lack of them following the latest reports on Economy Minister Chris Cardona will speak volumes, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said this morning.
He said Dr Muscat's silence so far following the reports that Dr Cardona had visited a brothel during an official visit to Germany was deafening.
He said the minister, who had “a reputation for low moral standards”, had not only embarrassed the Maltese people with his “sleaze”, but he had now exported that embarrassment to Germany and the rest of the EU.
Dr Cardona, he said, was in Germany representing Malta on business related to its Presidency of the EU Council. He had therefore embarrassed the whole of the European Union.
This was the same minister, Dr Busuttil said, who had only recently had been investigated by the Auditor General for spending €700 on drinks from a hotel mini bar while on official business in Dubai.
Dr Cardona, he observed, was not just a minister, but Labour deputy leader for party affairs.
"Somebody needs to tell him that party affairs does not mean partying," Dr Busuttil said.
The ministerial code of ethics, he explained, demanded that ministers observe the highest standards of integrity, honesty, transparency, accountability and sense of justice.
He would leave it up to the people to decide which of them Dr Cardona had broken, or which one he didn't, Dr Busuttil said.
The main issue, Dr Busuttil said, was what Dr Muscat would now do.
"We will wait to see what the prime minister's standards are, if any," he said.
"If Joseph Muscat does not even act even on this one, he would be showing that he has lost all control over his ministers and his government and he has lost all seriousness, all morality and reduced the government to the level of a brothel."
DISAPPOINTMENT OVER EU SILENCE ON CORRUPTION
Earlier, Dr Busuttil said he understood the frustrations of many who questioned why the EU was not helping Malta deal with the government’s corruption.
“The EU is not here to save us from ourselves. If you want to be saved from this government, then it is the people who need to take action. The people brought this government in, and they can get rid of it too,” he said.