In the Press: Government wins confidence vote

Newspapers today are dominated by news that Prime minister Joseph Muscat won a vote of no confidence, presented by the Opposition in Parliament on Monday night. The final vote was of 38 in favour of the government and 31 against, and it took place after a marathon 13 hours of discussions. The Opposition pushed for the vote of no confidence after the revalations made by the Panama Papers leak involving energy minister Konrad Mizzi and the PM’s chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Times of Malta

Muscat survives the voteof no confidence amid fresh revalations in the Panama Papers case. A report on the Australian Financial Review revealed that nine banks were approached to open accounts for the Panama companies owned by Mizzi and Schembri. Addressing the press at the end of the vote, Muscat reiterated that he would take action against Mizzi and Schembri only when he has all the facts in hand.

L-Orizzont

Mizzi and Schembri once again rebuke claims made in the Australian Financial Review. The latest report claims that Mossack Fonseca approached two other banks to open accounts in their names after it failed to open accounts in their names in the Carribbean, Dubai and Miami. Mizzi said that the correspondence is being attributed to him when it belonged to other clients of Nexia BT, while Schembri insisted that the journalist behind the piece was “confusing facts”.

In-Nazzjon

Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil urges the PM to take action on the issue of Panama, following the government’s win of the vote of no confidence. Busuttil said that although the government had won the vote in parliament, it had lost the support of the people, who wanted to live in a democratic country above everything else.

The Malta Independent

The Office of the Prime Minister did not respond to questions sent on the 15th April about a fine Mizzi was meant to pay for breaching tax laws. The questions were linked to comments made by Muscat in early March, where he revealed that Mizzi had not yet paid the fine for breaching tax law. The breach occurred when Mizzi failed to declare ownership of the company within 30 days of its creation.