[WATCH] ‘Muscat has lost moral authority and must resign in the national interest’, Busuttil tells protest

Busuttil calls on Muscat to resign 'in the national interest'

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil challenged Joseph Muscat to resign "in the national interest, insisting that the prime minister has "lost all moral authority to govern".

Addressing the thousands of people in Castille during a protest against corruption, Busuttil warned that Malta is in a period of instability following revelations that energy and health minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri own offshore companies in Panama.

"Which businessman who negotiates with Muscat will not question whether he will have to pay a secret commission fee somewhere along the line? What will the other European prime  ministers think of Muscat when he tries to defend Malta's financial services sector? They will tell him that he should have first kicked out Mizzi and Schembri.

"Our message to Muscat is simple. For the sake of loyalty to the constitution and in the national interest, he must resign now before he damages the country further."

U għalhekk il-messaġġ tagħna lill-Prim Ministru llum huwa ċar: itlaq 'il barra, sabiex ma tibqax issir aktar ħsara. #barra

— Simon Busuttil (@SimonBusuttil) April 10, 2016

He noted that the Australian Financial Review today claimed that Nexia BT official Karl Cini enquired with Mossack Fonseca about "setting up a Panama company and possibly a trust" only five days after the 2013 election.

"Now we know what their roadmap was, to go to Panama. They had promised before the election to hit the ground running, and indeed they went running to Panama a day after they took their oaths."

The report says that in August 2013, Mossack Fonseca came through with Cini's order, but by then the order had grown to three Panamanian companies - one apiece which would belong to Mizzi and Schembri and the third with no details of its owner.

"Who does this third Panamanian company belong to?" he questioned to the cheering crowd. 

He compared Muscat's defence of Mizzi and Schembri as a person defending a thief who was caught red-handed in a persons house before he had a chance to steal anything.

"Instead of a prime minister, Muscat has become a defender of corruption," the PN leader said.