Grech: ‘We need to take country back from these criminals’ • Abela rebuts with litany of PN scandals

Opposition leader Bernard Grech has said the highest office of government had been captured by criminals in a speech to the House, in a week dominated by sensational headlines on the Caruana Galizia assassination.

Grech was speaking days after two hitmen in the murder claimed they could tell police of a former minister and a sitting minister implicated in major crimes they have first-hand information about, if they were accorded a pardon.

Grech’s impassioned speech on Wednesday, stressed on the unprecedented nature of the accusations which implicate former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.

As he clased off the Opposition’s speaking time on the Budget Implementation Bill, which saw every Nationalist Party MP hurl missives against corruption inside the Labour administration, Grech said Malta had “never experienced a crisis like this”.

The accusations now include suggestions from the hitmen in the Caruana Galizia assassination that a heist on HSBC in 2010, was planned with a Labour MP who is now a sitting minister. “I don’t want to believe it. This means that in front of us we potentially have criminals, here in the House of Representatives,” Grech said. “We have to take our country back from these criminals... They did not only steal money; they stole the soul of the nation,” Grech said.

Prime Minister Robert Abela, speaking just after Grech, called out the Opposition for not accepting the conclusions of magisterial inquiries when the result “does not favour their agenda”.

“If the inquiry’s conclusions are to their liking that’s ok. But if not, they start casting doubts... You’re only interested in sending people to prison,” Abela said in an equally impassioned speech during which he listed the government’s actions to save jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic and the institutional reforms it carried out over the past 15 months.

Abela said the Opposition, through European People’s Party secretary-general Simon Busutil, the former Opposition leader, was set on damaging the country’s reputation. He was referring to Thursday’s debate in the European Parliament that is set to discuss the latest developments in the Caruana Galizia murder case.

Grech made it a point to underline that the court prosecutions that took place last week were not the work of functioning institutions, but a result of pressure by the Opposition, civil society and Daphne Caruana Galizia’s perseverance.

Grech also called on President George Vella to “stand up and instil sense in this troubling situation”.

Prime Minister Robert Abela

Abela hit back with a litany of scandals under previous Nationalist administrations, including the pardon given to a Brazilian drug trafficker in the mid-1990s and a presidential pardon to Joseph Fenech, known as Żeppi l-Ħafi, that was reportedly brokered personally by former prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami in a late-night meeting at Fenech’s property.

Abela said his government would be dealing with pardons “with the greatest of responsibility”.

“You want to speak to us about functioning institutions? Your government liberated a convicted drug dealer,” Abela said.

He also called on Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi to identify the sitting minister allegedly involved in a botched HSBC hold-up in 2010, and called out Grech for saying that he would give Yorgen Fenech a pardon to get to the bottom of the Caruana Galizia case. “You effectively invited the alleged mastermind to file a pardon request. Go and tell the police commissioner what you know if you know so much,” Abela hit back.

He said that by refusing to debate budget measures, the Opposition was refusing to discuss the country’s future. “You refuse to speak about what is relevant to people. We are different. We will continue to do big changes in the country, because we have the courage to be a force for good,” Abela said.

At the end of the debate the Budget Implementation Bill was approved with 33 votes in favour and 27 against. Parliament also unanimously approved the re-appointment of Auditor General Charles Deguara for another five-year term and his deputy Noel Camilleri. Parliament has adjourned for the Easter recess and will resume on 12 April.