PN leader Simon Busuttil this evening urged Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to stop embarrassing Malta and further harming its reputation abroad.

Addressing a campaign activity in Labour’s stronghold of Zejtun, the PN leader referred to the second invitation sent by the European Parliament to Dr Muscat and his Chief of Staff Kieth Schembri to appear before the Pana committee next week to answer questions stemming from the Panama Papers leaks (see attached PDF).  

Dr Busuttil said that a Prime Minister who had nothing to hide would accept the invitation to face MEPs. He said that if he didn't, Dr Muscat as president of the European Council would be giving Malta a bad name.

“If you want to dump your own name, it’s your responsibility but we won’t allow you to further harm Malta’s name abroad,” Dr Busuttil said.

The PN leader said that following the next elections, it would be his responsibility as Prime Minister to restore Malta’s name abroad, and he would have no problem to appear in front of the European Parliament to give the necessary replies MEPs would need.

Dr Busuttil also criticised Education Minister Evarist Bartolo who is against the PN’s proposal to extend free childcare to all Maltese families.

Referring to Mr Bartolo’s connection to the Foundation for Tomorrow Schools scandal, Dr Busuttil said that with no corruption, a PN government would make sure that the money was dedicated to the needs of families and not to Evarist Bartolo’s canvasser Edward Caruana to build his apartment blocks in Rabat.

Dr Busuttil said that this is only one example of how taxes should end up serving the people and not Evarist Bartolo’s canvasser.  

Ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com