Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said yesterday the Nationalist Party put words in his mouth and claimed he would be freezing the minimum wage when he never said so.

“I have no problem with political criticism and haven’t filed a libel for the past five years but I did not say those words”, Dr Muscat said when testifying in libel proceedings he initiated during the election campaign last year.

Dr Muscat said the PN put up a billboard featuring him holding an ice cube and claiming he would freeze the minimum wage.

“I never said that,” Dr Muscat insisted, adding that besides the billboard, the PN used its media machine to reinforce the message that he would also stop adding the cost of living increase to the minimum wage.

“I never said those words because that was not my policy, neither was it my party’s or my government’s policy”. In fact, no such measure was implemented by the government in the two budgets it had presented so far, he added,

Dr Muscat said the cost of living increase had always been there and the PN falsely alleged that he would be changing the mechanism.

The case continues.