I have not given up, but election result obliges me to step down – Busuttil

Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil has said that his decision to step down as leader of the party and not recontest the post of leader was not due to him “not wanting to or having given up”.

“Ultimately when there is an election result, one must carry responsibility,” said Busuttil. “These are the standards of decency that I not only speak of, but also act upon, because I believe in them.”

Busuttil was speaking during a phone interview on Radio 101 where he said that once a new leader is elected, he would not be disappearing and would continue to believe in the same principles he does today.

He stressed that the Nationalist Party must be the party that continues to fight for justice in the country, adding that the rule of law no longer meant anything in Malta, with justice only applied with it suits authorities.

Busuttil said that despite the fact that the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri and minister Konrad Mizzi had been caught with secret companies in Panama, in which they planned to deposit up to a €1m a year in commissions, no action had been taken by the police.

This is why, he said he had asked the magistrate to determine whether it was a “textbook case of money laundering”.

Turning to an interview with former FIAU official Johnathan Ferris, Busuttil said that in addition to no investigation being carried out, the police had also failed to register the FIAU reports, insisting that Ferris had been side-lined simply for doing his job.