Malta must not be the cash register for the government and for chief of staff Keith Schembri, Opposition leader Adrian Delia said on Sunday.
Dr Delia was reacting to a report by the Sunday Times of Malta showing that Mr Schembri got €425,000 in government contracts since Labour was elected.
'We need to stop the government’s marketing machine from making us pay more than what we owe,' he said.
Speaking during a short phone-in interview, Dr Delia noted that Malta was paying more than it should for gas due to the deal reached with Azerbaijan’s state-owned company Socar.
The Daphne Project last week revealed that Malta was losing tens of millions of euros from the new gas-fired power station deal.
Dr Delia said that the country was being robbed, and demanded that the government gives back what it took from the country and its taxpayers.
He also said that the current administration was led a “government of convenience”.
“It enforced pushback against migrants when it was convenient, whereas now Prime Minister Joseph Muscat insists the country cannot go one day without migrant workers,” he said.
Adding that the government had no long-term plan, he noted that the country needed to see how many migrants were coming in and how we could cater for them.
He also announced that he would be attending Sunday’s civil society protest in Valletta to “listen to people’s concerns about corruption”.
Encouraging civil society to continue speaking out, Dr Delia said the government was trying to sow fear in critics.
“I am not afraid. We are not afraid,” he said, adding that this administration saw “the highest level of corruption that ever faced this country.”
Turning to Tuesday’s Labour Day celebrations, Dr Delia said that workers could not keep up with the cost of living and had to work long hours to keep up.
“We will sit down with workers to hear their concerns, rather than use May 1 to show off strength,” he said.
“Labour want to show off strength, but we want to show compassion to workers,” Dr Delia added.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat made a rallying cry last week, when he encouraged Labour party supporters to attend May 1 celebrations in response to Daphne Project revelations.