Julia Farrugia
Nationalist candidate Frank Portelli was missing from the line-up of MEP candidates sitting behind Lawrence Gonzi in his press conference, reportedly “seeing to his wounds” from yesterday’s defeat.
Asked why he was not present for the press conference, the doctor simply replied he was “in a queue at Mater Dei and unable to be with the Prime Minister.”
A quick-witted Portelli said: “I’m at Mater Dei in a queue to see to my wounds from the massive trashing the PN took in this election.”
He later SMSed voters with the same message. With his sense of humour still intact, Portelli – a former Nationalist MP – said he was “greatly disappointed” at the result, given that the European issues of the campaign were overshadowed by domestic issues.
Portelli said the hike in utility rates proved to be the PN’s undoing. “There were people asking me, ‘why are we paying high rates to make up for the mistakes of those who bought oil at a high price?’ I had no answer to that.”
“In another country, resignations would have followed,” Portelli said about the high cost of oil procurement.
He added that another bad tactic was the fact that voters had just received their electricity and water bills in the last two days of the electoral campaign.
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