Allow me to refer to the letter titled ‘Arrogant talk’ by Eddy Privitera (January 24) wherein he said that Simon Busuttil “lacks the basics of democracy” because he (Busuttil) took European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker and European Commissioner Maros Sefcovic to task for having skirted the Panama Papers issue. Though it may be acceptable to the correspondent, the Labour Party and the government that a socialist minister (Konrad Mizzi) is found out to have a secret Panama offshore company registered to his name, such a state of affairs should never be acceptable to the European Commission (let alone be tolerated).

One wonders whether correspondent Privitera, Labour and the government expected Busuttil to ask permission before speaking out during the special parliamentary session held on January 11.

This is a dictatorial attitude aimed at stifling the Opposition’s (Nationalist Party’s) right to freedom of speech.