Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was on the warpath yesterday as he lambasted the Opposition ahead of a European Parliament debate on citizenship.
Speaking in the morning, before the debate in Strasbourg, Dr Muscat said Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil should be embarrassed by the EP resolution that mentioned Malta by name.
He noted it was the Nationalist MEPs who insisted Malta be singled out, with no fewer than 11 references in the resolution proposed by the European People’s Party (the PN’s European political family).
The final compromise resolution agreed by all political groupings mentioned the island twice on the insistence of the Socialists.
The PN’s reaction was immediate, accusing Dr Muscat of acting like a bully with those who criticised him and his decisions.
Dr Muscat thanked the members of the Socialist and Green groups, who, he said, would be pushing for Malta’s name to be omitted from the final resolution.
But he was steadfast in his government’s willingness to go ahead with the Individual Investor Programme, commonly known as the cash-for-citizenship scheme, irrespective of the EP vote. “The government will take note of the debate but will carry on with the scheme, in the same way the European Parliament in the past called on Malta to introduce abortion but the country decided otherwise.”
Dr Muscat insisted the EU had no jurisdiction on citizenship matters and welcomed the fact that the EP resolution emphasised this.
Asked whether he was happy with the way Labour MEPs worked within their political group to get Malta’s name off the compromise resolution – an unsuccessful feat – Dr Muscat singled out Joseph Cuschieri for his unstinting efforts.
But in a hard-hitting reaction, the PN said it was the Prime Minister who was undermining Malta’s reputation by going ahead with the cash-for-citizenship scheme.
“The Prime Minister’s comments this morning [yesterday] could only be seen as an attempt by Dr Muscat to gag those who were against the scheme, including some of his colleagues in the Socialist group of the European Parliament,” the PN said.
The debate in the EP and other fora, including the international press, was sparked solely by the government’s decision to sell citizenship, the party said.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com