‘Grazzi Ġaħan’: PN’s new billboards target justice minister’s chat with Yorgen Fenech

The justice minister’s remark on “ignorant labourites” in a WhatsApp chat with the Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech, has been featured on the Nationalist Party’s newly erected billboards with a witty take on a well-worn salutation for ministers.

The PN billboards in Tal-Barrani Road, Zejtun and Portes de Bombes, Floriana shows Edward Zammit Lewis walking out of a door to door visit, as the resident tells him “Well done minister” (Prosit Ministru), and he replies “Thanks Ġaħan” (Grazzi Ġaħan).

The reference is to WhatsApp texts between Zammit Lewis and 17 Black owner Yorgen Fenech, in which the minister refers to Labour voters with the derogatory term ‘Ġaħan Laburist’. The context is as yet unknown.

One of the exchanges happened just after Zammit Lewis, then a backbench MP, had addressed a press conference with Robert Abela, also a backbench MP, in which the justice minister criticised former Opposition leader Simon Busuttil over attempts to initiate an inquiry into Fenech’s offshore company 17 Black.

He has since offered no apology for his comment, insisting the context was in relation to the electoral system and how it needed to better encourage the politics of service.

I have been a Labourite from the womb, I worked and sacrificed my profession and my family, and Labourites know this,” he said, offering no apology

The Nationalist party will be presenting a motion of no confidence against Zammit Lewis in parliament.  

READ ALSO: No apology from Zammit Lewis over ‘Ġaħan Laburist’ comment