Prime Minister ‘acts like he’s some Super One journalist’ – Busuttil

Row over direct orders Busuttil's law firm took under former Nationalist administration continues • Busuttil says he will not prejudice MPs' position over spring hunting abolition referendum

Simon Busuttil
Simon Busuttil

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has accused the prime minister of “acting like a Super One journalist” after Joseph Muscat yesterday called him a ‘liar’ over the fact that his legal firm had taken some €412,000 in government contracts under the former administration.

Some 25% of the contracts were said to have been direct orders, Muscat said on Sunday.

Busuttil has not denied receiving the direct orders, but accused Muscat of “attacking him”.

“At times Muscat makes things up and harps on them as if they were true. I didn’t lie and I did nothing wrong. It’s a pity that every time he finds himself in a corner, the Prime Minister resorts to mudslinging to cover up for himself,” the PN leader said.

“He still thinks he is a Super One journalist,” Busuttil said of Muscat, formerly a journalist for the Labour Party TV station before entering politics.

“It is democratic for an opposition to criticise the government but it is regressive to attack the opposition… especially the Opposition leader. This is a prime minister who threw meritocracy out of the window.”

Pressed by journalists as to whether he denied that his legal firm had received €52,000 in direct orders, Busuttil said the matter was already public, and again reiterating his branding of Muscat as “a journalist working for Super One”.

Busuttil hit out at him for ignoring the Marsaxlokk residents now faced by the prospect of an LNG tanker moored inside the Marsaxlokk Bay for the supply of gas to the a new power plant.

Asked by MaltaToday over his position on a campaign to abolish spring hunting via referendum, the Opposition leader said he would wait and see and confirm whether there are enough signatures for an abrogative referendum.

“At that point it’s not our opinion that matters, but the law allowing a referendum,” he said.

The PN leader said he would then call a meeting of the parliamentary group to determine the party’s position. He refused to give his personal opinion on the abolition of spring hunting, saying it would be “irresponsible” to prejudice his MPs’ position.

He however noted that the PN in government had a track record where it always worked to allow “a limited and disciplined sprung hunting”.