News reports emerging from the Daphne Project were part of a concerted effort to damage the Labour Party, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said on Friday.
“I think there are those who hate the Labour Party so much that they will stop at nothing, even damaging the country in the process… To hurt the whole country, with thousands of people who depend on the economic sector – I think that is very irresponsible,” he said.
Mr Bartolo was fielding questions from reporters during a visit to a State school in Mosta earlier this morning.
He was asked for his initial reaction to the revelations reported in the journalistic collaboration The Daphne Project.
The consortium of 18 international media houses, including The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, and Times of Malta, among others, are following up on Daphne Caruana Galizia's work.
So far the project has reported allegations that Economy Minister and Labour Party deputy leader Chris Cardona had been seen drinking with one of the three men accused of murdering Ms Caruana Galizia.
It has also revealed how a total of $1.6 million (€1.3 million) was transferred to 17 Black, a Dubai company which was named as a 'target client' for the Prime Minister’s chief of Staff Keith Schembri's and then Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi's once-secret Panama companies.
In his brief reaction, Mr Bartolo said: “there is so much that is being hashed and rehashed, that one has to look carefully at what is being reported. One has to think long and hard.”
Critics 'a law unto themselves'
He went on to say that those who claimed to believe in the rule of law, had “a very interesting definition”.
“They are a law onto themselves. They want to be prosecution, judge, jury, and if possible executioner as well,” he said.
Mr Bartolo had been one of the few ministers to break ranks when the Panama Papers had first uncovered the secret offshore holdings of high-ranking members of government. He had raised eyebrows when he had said he would have resigned had he been in Minister Mizzi’s position.
“I have always said, we have to be very responsible in the way we run our financial services, for the reputation of our country. Strangely enough when I used to say this when there was another party in government, I used to be mocked, ridiculed now all of a sudden I have become a hero to these people, – I am not going to play their games,” he said.
WATCH: $1.6m wired to Mizzi and Schembri's Panama 'target client'
Asked what he would say to Labour Party supporters who felt uncomfortable with the Daphne Project revelations, Mr Bartolo’s advice was to keep in mind that those who were “ready to hurt the country, simply to try and damage the Labour Party in the process, I think, are doing a disservice”.
“I think in democratic politics, it’s all fair to try and change government, by proposing new ideas, by criticising issues, when there are shortcomings hold us up to scrutiny. But I think the way this whole thing is being orchestrated now, is very, very unfair,” he said.