[WATCH] Busuttil: ‘Muscat can’t sack Falzon. If he goes, PM must shoulder responsibility’

Simon Busuttil says he will ‘take note’ of EC decision if Security-of-Supply on 18-year contract with ElectroGas is green-lit but says that as PM he will buy energy from cheapest source

Simon Busuttil: ‘Muscat cannot sack Michael Falzon because if he goes, the prime minister will have to shoulder political responsibility.’
Simon Busuttil: ‘Muscat cannot sack Michael Falzon because if he goes, the prime minister will have to shoulder political responsibility.’
Simon Busuttil on Dissett • Highlights

Actions speak louder than words, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said in an interview on Dissett with PBS head of news Reno Bugeja, as he described the resignation from the House of former MP Joe Cassar as an example of his party putting into practice its battle-cry of “honest politics”.

It was a week in which Busuttil lost the former health minister after having first placed blind trust in Cassar’s integrity, when the MP was found to have benefited from over €8,000 in house works financed by property entrepreneur Joe Gaffarena during his time as a Cabinet member.

The alleged donation was never declared by Cassar, opening himself up to a breach of ethics.

“What Cassar did is an example for everyone – for me, for anyone who is in politics,” Busuttil said. “Cassar did not need me to tell him to take the honourable way out. He understood where I stand,” Busuttil said, saying that while the former MP was still denying any accusations of wrongdoing he had also shouldered responsibility.

“When MaltaToday broke the news [of the Gaffarena receipt] he absolutely denied it and told me that he never authorised anyone to pay for those works… I still believe in Cassar. The fact that he made an error of judgement, does not mean he does not have integrity,” Busuttil said.

Busuttil said that Cassar resigned as MP of his own volition, and that he had only ‘demoted’ him in the same way that he would have asked for his resignation as a minister, had be been prime minister.

“Now the attention should be turned to the government. The Opposition is setting the standard… and now it should be the Prime Minister to tell us what he will do about Michael Falzon,” Busuttil said, referring to the controversial €1.65 million expropriation deal for Gaffarena’s son Marco that is now under investigation by the NAO.

He said that MaltaToday’s revelations showing that an IAID investigation had found that a legal limit for a 30% variation on the Old Mint Street valuations had been breached, was proof enough for Joseph Muscat to sack parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon.

“He is dragging his feet because he cannot sack him,” he said. “Because he is Falzon’s own minister. If Falzon goes, it’s the prime minister who has to shoulder political responsibility,” Busuttil said.

The PN leader also questioned whether Gaffarena met Muscat before the 2013 election, in the same way that he met Busuttil in 2012 demanding that MEPA sanctions the abusive extension to the J.Gaff petrol pump station that was preventing him from opening the shuttered fuel station.

Energy and ElectroGas

Busuttil said he would take note of the European Commission’s decision if it green-lights a Security of Supply Agreement with the ElectroGas consortium, although he was not willing to explain whether in that case he would refuse to buy energy from the same consortium.

Earlier on in the programme, Busuttil sounded bullish as he refused suggestions that he could not alter the government’s contractural agreement with ElectroGas, which will supply Malta with natural gas for an 18-year period after constructing an LNG plant. “The contract is still under investigation by the European Commission… to see if the contract is illegal because you cannot bind yourself to buy energy from the same source,” Busuttil said.

When pressed over what he would do in the event of a positive answer from Brussels, Busuttil said he would “give an answer later after I see what has been approved”.

“The prime minister was angry about what I said,” Busuttil quipped, referring to his pledge to buy electricity from the cheapest source.

“He said I was being irresponsible. It means he has admitted he will buy energy at the highest price. He has bound himself to buy energy [from one source] for 18 years. He’s lost the argument on energy… the only way to solve this is to publish the ElectroGas contracts,” Busuttil said.

“Am I going to bind myself on a contract on which Muscat cannot be transparent about? My position is clear. I will buy energy from the cheapest source. The obligation is on him [to publish the contract]. I don’t need to have a legal opinion to say that I want to buy energy from the cheapest source.”

Individual Investor Programme

On the controversial sale of citizenship, Simon Busuttil said he would ensure that the names of those who buy into the IIP are published, and expressed concern that the applicants are not spending 12 months living in Malta before applying for citizenship.

“We reached an agreement with the EC for the applicants to spend 12 months in Malta before applying. We’re not even respecting this part of the law,” Busuttil said.

The Opposition leader also said that Joe Vella Bonnici, the chairman of Identity Malta, should resign given the degree of corruption that was being investigated by the police.

IVF and embryo freezing

Busuttil said that the former Nationalist administration’s law on IVF, which introduced egg freezing, was delivering results that were equivalent to IVF regimes in other countries.

“Our position is clear. This law is giving positive results. Let’s become a centre of excellence on egg freezing technology… if the Prime Minister says the results are no good, and that we need embryo freezing to improve the results, he must say declare as much,” Busuttil said.

“I’m ready to listen… but until a Bill is published, we want the current law to keep functioning. It’s only been three years in the law-books… when you freeze an embryo there are consequences.”

Religious vilification

Busuttil said that removing the vilification of religion from the Criminal Code could encourage fanatics and hotheads to take the law in their heads if no deterrent was in place. “The law is there to avoid vengeful acts,” Busuttil said. “Criticism is one thing, vilification another… and why remove vilification? Are there people in jail over this law? It’s just another fanciful invention of Labour’s.”

No sitting on the fence against ISIS

Simon Busuttil said that as prime minister he would include Malta in the international coalition against the Islamic State. “You cannot be neutral against terrorism… I think it is a pity that we are the only EU member state not in coalition against ISIS. We would be showing where we stand on terrorism… we should not be sitting on the fence.”