PN: Robert Abela has no support left from the Labour Party

Prime Minister Robert Abela no longer enjoys the support of the Labour Party, Nationalist shadow ministers Graham Bencini and Jerome Caruana Cilia said on Wednesday.

“A month ago, Robert Abela told us that the government had received the message from the European elections and will be changing paths. Yesterday we saw that Abela is going to stay on the same path and keep on embezzling money off the Maltese and Gozitans, paying those close to him,” Bencini said during a press conference held on Wednesday afternoon.

The shadow ministers' comments come as the Central Governor Edward Scicluna stands accused of his alleged role in the Vitals saga, accused of committing fraud, and misappropriation of public funds. After a cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, Prime Minister Robert Abela said that an agreement had been reached with Scicluna which sees him suspended temporarily from his position but still keeping his salary.

On Wednesday, Bencini said that Abela is determined to keep on lying to the public as if Scicluna had any type of integrity, he would’ve immediately resigned. He further slammed Abela, stating that integrity isn’t “paying [Scicluna] €11,500 monthly from the public's taxes to a person in a suspended role.”

The shadow minister stated that Robert Abela has “no support from the Labour Party”, claiming this is the reason why he refused the request made by Nationalist Party Leader Bernard Grech to have a parliamentary discussion about Scicluna.

“As soon as Joseph Muscat defended Scicluna, stating ‘there will be problems, if he is removed,’ Robert Abela changed his stance, and the cabinet went with Muscat’s advice,” Bencini said.

Shadow minister Jerome Caruana Cilia stated that the Prime Minister has no authority with his back against the wall. He said that Abela isn’t running the country, but he is being run by “a number of groups within the Labour Party, one of them being Joseph Muscat's.”

“When an employee is under investigation, for something much smaller than this, they are put on half pay and some are even fired but the Prime Minister decided to treat Edward Scicluna differently,” he said.

The shadow ministers said the country deserves to turn a new page in politics, with a government that knows the country’s interest should come before everything and this can only be done through the Nationalist Party,” they said.