The disgusting words used by the Nationalist Party’s latest ‘star’ candidate, Salvu Mallia, while addressing a PN activity in Gozo continues to prove that Simon Busuttil is literally scraping the bottom of the barrelto find candidates to contestthe election.

Mallia described the Prime Minister as “the worst thing that happened to Malta since the plague of 1813”.

Either this man has gone completely out of his senses or else he is being driven by political hate of gargantuan proportions, the kind of which we have not seen in our country for decades.

Whatever the reason for his obscene comment, there is only one way Busuttil and his campaign manager, Caroline Muscat, can help  limit the political damage caused by such talk.

They have to insist that Mallia apologises to the Prime Minister and if he refuses, his candidature should be withdrawn. But, instead of doing this, Busuttil has publicly declared that Mallia’s disgusting and outrageous words were “acceptable”.

This proves the PN has fallen into a political abyss which it can never claw itself out of as long as Busuttil remains leader.

No wonder Liliana Risiott, a well-known PN supporter up to the recent past, has commented: “The more the PN is saddled with such poor-quality candidates, the lower it gets and distances people away from it... today those people who have taken over the PN  are people who would say anything, lie about everything and promise everything in order to obtain power. You should be ashamed, if you are able to.”

Further comment would be superfluous.