Busuttil takes brothel allegations to parliament: Malta ‘in state of shock and disgust’

Simon Busuttil takes up allegations of Chris Cardona inside FKK Acapulco brothel during parliamentary debat: ‘You have turned this country into a brothel, and our country is not a brothel’

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil
Opposition leader Simon Busuttil

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil took time out Tuesday evening in the  House to report that “Malta was in a state of shock and disgust” over allegations penned by Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia, that economic minister Chris Cardona had been witnessed inside a German brothel, outside Essen.

Busuttil reiterated the allegations, which have denied by Cardona, that the minister was inside the FKK Acapulco of Velbert, a 28-minute drive from Essen where he is on government business.

Cardona said he will be suing Caruana Galizia for defamation.

“I don’t think he went there to get some change, did he?” Busuttil asked in parliament. “A minister would be placing himself to blackmail if there happened to be CCTV footage of the alleged visit to the brothel.”

Busuttil was speaking in parliament during the second reading of a Bill to amend the Police Act.

He said nobody should expect the Prime Minister to take any action – even in the case of “such disgusting and deplorable behaviour” – because he had lost any moral authority.

Earlier, PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami called on Muscat and Cardona to prove that he did not visit the brothel whilst in Essen on government business.

Busuttil said Muscat had already failed to act on the Panama Papers scandal, on the case of the canvasser of Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, on reports of Joe Baldacchino – a person of trust within the home affairs minister – plotting to create a vacancy for the son of a colleague or in the case of the €700 mini-bar tab registered in a Dubai hotel.

“You have turned this country into a brothel, and our country is not a brothel,” Busuttil said. “I urge the public to judge these allegations and this behaviour and to return a sense of decency to this country.”

Cardona has issued a categorical denial to allegations published in the blog. “This outright lie is another attempt on Caruana Galizia’s part to discredit and sully an individual’s reputation,” Cardona said, accusing the columnist of peddling fake news.