Updated 4.35pm - Added Home Affairs Ministry reaction
Simon Busuttil would remove police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar without notice if elected Prime Minister after next year’s election.
Speaking at the Nationalist Party club in Birkirkara this morning, Dr Busuttil again described Mr Cutajar as “a puppet” of the government.
The commissioner was there, not because he was competent, but to cover up for Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his government, Dr Busuttil said.
As a result, organised crime was rampant.
“We have one car bomb after another. People don’t feel safe driving down the street anymore, and we have a police commissioner who is more interested in defending Joseph Muscat, his Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, and Minister Konrad Mizzi,” he said, pleading with Mr Cutajar, the fifth police commissioner in four years, to resign if he was not fit for purpose.
The latest media reports that unnamed Labour politicians had intervened into the arrest of two Gozitan youths arrested over alleged drug trafficking was symptomatic, he said, of the current state of the police force.
“For honesty’s sake, if you can’t do your work, get out of here today," Dr Busuttil said.
The Opposition leader then described Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela as the worst minister responsible for police since the infamously turbulent 1980s
A Nationalist government, he said, would bring with it a police corps to be proud of, “to make us all feel safe”.
Dr Busuttil then turned to the government’s proposed reform of the press law, charging the current administration with attempting to impede people’s freedom of Internet.
“If you regularly comment online, about current affairs and what is happening around you, as I am sure many of you, and as I believe you should be able to, this government wants you to have to register. And, if you don’t register you will get a €1,000 fine. Well we are telling this government no. No we won’t let you try to control this too,” Dr Busuttil said, insisting he would fight the proposed reform tooth and nail.
And if the law was passed, he would give Party supporters instructions to ignore it. The moment he was elected Prime Minister, he would remove this law too.
The PN, he said, had always been committed to freedom of expression. Three years ago the Opposition had proposed enshrining these rights in the Constitution, he said, however the government had ignored its calls for democratic progress on this front too.
Referring to a protest-cum-political rally organised by the PN on the matter last week, Dr Busuttil said the electorate could feel that the Opposition was back on its feet. He wanted to invest all his energy to offering an alternative government, which he was faithful the people would elect to govern in 2018.
'Stop lying and stirring the pot' - PL
In a reaction, the Labour Party described Dr Busuttil's speech as a "hysterical" one which included an "unprecedented" attack on the police commissioner and police force.
"Simon Busuttil had no qualms about using this week's Msida [bombing] incident to try and stir up fear," it added.
Malta would continue to be a serene place, the PL said, despite the Opposition leader's "lies".
In a separate statement, the Justice Ministry said Dr Busuttil was alone in his insistence on "saying 'no' to everything and everyone."
It accused the Opposition leader of "playing to the gallery" in his criticism of a proposed new media law, and noted that rather than make his own proposals to improve things, he was taking a destructive attitude.
"Having failed to lift a finger to outlaw criminal libel in the past 25 years, now that it is to be repealed the Opposition leader is to vote against it anyway," the ministry said in a statement.
The Home Affairs Ministry also issued a statement condemning Dr Busuttil's speech and saying the Opposition Leader was "becoming a serious threat to democracy."
It also pointed out that the alleged case of political interference in the arrest of two Gozitan youths happened before the current Home Affairs minister and police commissioner were in those posts.