Updated with PL statement at noon
Next Sunday’s national demonstration will be in the name of all people of good will, and not just Nationalists, Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil said.
Addressing members of the party’s executive and sectional committees, Dr Busuttil said the demonstration will give the people the opportunity to say no to lies and hypocrisy and yes to freedom and democracy.
The country needed someone to stand up to the government’s corruption and the time had come for everyone to do his bit, the PN leader said. If the people did not stand up now, it would then be too late.
And if the people in government were given a second opportunity to lead the country, they would do worse than at present.
He said that now a Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) director had been appointed after months of the position being vacant, it was his duty to say what conclusions the report which led to the resignation of his predecessor and the Police Commissioner had reached.
The PN expected the FIAU to do its duty as an agency set up by the people’s taxes and the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister should shoulder political responsibility.
Dr Busuttil noted that the EU’s Panama Papers committee would be arriving in Malta at the end of next week. Although this committee had requested a meeting with Minister Konrad Mizzi and the PM’s chief of staff Keith Schembri, they had not yet replied. Dr Busuttil challenged the Prime Minister to make these two people meet the committee if they refused to face the challenge out of their own free will.
He said that nearly everyone now accepted the fact that this was the most corrupt government in the country’s history and many were also realising that it was also a government that lied.
The only transparent thing in the Labour government was its strategy to throw mud at others in the hope that the people would see all politicians in the same vein.
The Opposition leader referred to the Prime Minister’s appeal to supporters last Sunday to extend the hand of friendship to the Opposition. In four years, Dr Busuttil said, the Prime Minister had never met the Opposition leader.
While he spoke about friendship in front of cameras, the government held an axe which it used against all those who dared criticise it, he said.
The people will again shun the politics being breached by Dr Busuttil - PL
In a reply, the Labour Party said that Dr Busuttil's speech confirmed that the only policy being preached by the Nationalist Party was provocative and divided the country.
The serenity that existed in the country contrasted with the hatred Dr Busuttil was trying to spread. This, the PL said, was the same person who before the election spoke about the reds and the blues and those who had the face of Nationalists and those with the face of Labourites.
He had not yet changed and the people would yet again shun such politics.
The hand of friendship which had always been offered by the Prime Minister and the sense of optimism that existed in the country would remain in spite of the Opposition leader's divisive speeches, the PL said.