The Prime Minister was a hypocrite for making a hero of his champion for LGBT rights, who had committed a homophobic act, Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil said yesterday.

Speaking at a political meeting in Rabat, Dr Busuttil again insisted that Joseph Muscat should shoulder political responsibility for allying himself with former MEP candidate Cyrus Engerer, who was last week found guilty of distributing pornographic photos of a former lover.

He recalled that before the election Dr Muscat had politically assassinated the Labour Party’s deputy leader, Anglu Farrugia, after he criticised a magistrate.

Allowing a person awaiting an appeal court judgment to contest the MEP elections was irresponsible and immature.

This is not positive energy but shocking behaviour

The Nationalist Party would have told him to take a step back and clear his name, but the Prime Minister had made a hero out of an aggressor and a criminal.

Dr Busuttil said the victim in this case was not Mr Engerer but the person against whom the criminal act had been committed and the Maltese population.

The former Labour MEP candidate and PL champion of LGBT rights had been found guilty of committing a crime against a gay person. The act was in itself homophobic and it was hypocritical that Mr Engerer and Dr Muscat had tried to portray it as PN persecution.

He asked how the Nationalist Party could have been involved in Mr Engerer’s case when the appeal was initiated during the Labour legislature.

The Labour Party, he said, was being held hostage by a small group of people who lacked values and were morally corrupt.

“People are disgusted with this type of politics and the Maltese deserve better, clean, honest politics... This is not positive energy but shocking behaviour.”

He also referred to MPs’ declaration of assets and media reports that 16 Labour MPs had failed to submit their declarations by the end of April. He asked whether Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi did not want to admit that his wife was earning even more than €13,000 a month.

He appealed to voters to speak with their vote in the May 24 election – which seemed to be the only way the government listened.