Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil this evening said he was “under attack” from businessman Silvio Debono, and asked the people to question why he would do this.
“I ask why you –why do you think it is that Mr Debono has come out and attacked me?” Dr Busuttil said, later adding that as party leader, he had stood up and come out against a huge deal between Mr Debono and the government.
Fielding questions from reporters outside Parliament, Dr Busuttil said insinuations that the PN had asked for large sums of money from Mr Debono to cover top party officials’ wages were untrue and were meant to distract from a “stinking deal” the government had entered into with the businessman.
Dr Busuttil was asked by reporters whether any top party officials had asked Mr Debono to help cover wages, an allegation the businessman made in a statement earlier today, to which Dr Busuttil said that money made by the party’s organs, and money donated to it went towards financing its operations.
“I think everyone who gives a donation thinks he is paying wages. The salary cheques were issued by the party and not by Mr Debono,” he said.
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Dr Busuttil said the money Mr Debono had paid the Party’s media organisation, some €70,000, was for commercial arrangements with the Party’s media organ, Media.Link.
I think everyone who gives a donation thinks he is paying wages.- Simon Busuttil
Dr Busuttil has also come under fire over his deputy leader Mario de Marco who had been offering legal services to Mr Debono for the deal with the government. Dr Busuttil said he had known for “some time” about Dr de Marco’s involvement but did not say when he had first found out.
“When we decided to come out against the deal, I told Dr de Marco that he had to choose as he now had a conflict of interest,” he said, adding that this conflict had ceased once Dr de Marco stopped offering the Mr Debono legal services.
Asked whether he thought Dr de Marco had been in a conflicting position prior to the Party coming out against the multi-million euro project, Dr Busuttil insisted MPs had to make a living somehow. He added that MPs were free to do such work, especially if the deals they were involved in appeared to be above board.
Pressed on the point that Dr de Marco may have opened himself up to potential conflicts of interest by taking on the job with Mr Debono, Dr Busuttil the PN leader said this was the current situation – that MPs could do such work – he wanted to make the situation better, reiterating that he was “under attack” and that he wanted to “clean up politics”.