Sunday’s national demonstration against corruption will go ahead as planned even if Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi was sacked because it was the Prime Minister who now had to go in the wake of the Panama Papers, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said this evening.
Speaking on Net TV’s programme Newsfeed, Dr Busuttil said responsibility started and ended with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and he should shoulder collective ministerial responsibility.
Dr Mizzi and the PM’s chief of staff Keith Schembri, he said, should have been dismissed seven weeks ago. But the Prime Minister, who had hand-picked them himself, opted to spend all this time defending them instead.
He referred to criticism that he was damaging Malta with his statements and said that it was those who were allowing corruption to prevail who were damaging Malta.
There was no doubt, he said, that there was a smell of corruption in this case.
“We know pressure had been made by the minister to open a bank account for brokerage. From where does a minister get brokerage? This is what the people want to know,” he said, adding that those who did such things were the ones damaging the country and not those who wanted to stop them.
One would have expected Dr Mizzi to quit, Dr Busuttil said, adding that the minister instead threw the ball in the Prime Minister’s court.
“So the problem is now Joseph Muscat because it is he who has not taken action.”
Moreover, this was only one in a series of scandals.
“This is too much, all limits have been surpassed and the people are disgusted.”
He reiterated that Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri were now irrelevant.
“The problem is the PM because responsibility starts and end with him… Can the country continue to be led by a person who is turning a blind eye to blatant irregularities? We are not calling for an election but the country cannot continue to be led by Dr Muscat because there is great uncertainty and doubt about him. Confidence in the Prime Minister has been lost."
The Opposition, Dr Busuttil said, was forcing a debate on the matter and he appealed to MPs in the Labour Parliamentary group to also reflect on whether the country could go through another two years of this.
Dr Busuttil noted that Sunday’s national demonstration was a national activity in which he would not be the only speaker but there would also be speakers who were not from the Nationalist Party.
“The people hope things can be done differently. I am telling the people that I am making this my mission. My priority is to clean the political system once and for all,” Dr Busuttil said.