[WATCH] Nationalist government would roll back changes to Embryo Protection Act, Delia says

Nationalist Party (PN) leader Adrian Delia said on Sunday that a Nationalist government led by himself would roll back amendments to the Embryo Protection Act which are set to be approved by parliament.

Addressing a political activity in Zebbug, the PN leader that unlike the Labour Party, the PN was in favour of life, and not its destruction.

He said the government was doing everything it could to avoid having to used the term “child in the womb” by using a raft of scientific terms in the proposed bill.

“The government is only interested in gaining a few votes,” he said. “We are not are not looking at any numbers because when it comes to life there are no numbers or votes, because every life counts.”

He accused the government of seeking to turn unborn children into “products” and women into “objects”, to be used by third parties.

Delia said that in addition to being in favour of the life of the unborn child, he was also determined to ensure a life of dignity to those who were already alive.

He said he had spent the week meeting people who could not make ends meet, like the pensioner who could not afford to buy sweets for his grandchildren, and a single mother whose had ADHD and who hasn’t been allowed to go to school for five months because it had no Learning Support Assistance (LSA).

“I am in favour of a life that should be decent,” he said, stressing that many people were struggling during what should be the best of times.

Turning to yesterday’s conference on corruption in sport which was organised by the PN, Delia said the system could not longer penalise those who did the right thing and reported corruption and abuse.

“When you have corruption in sport, you have a corrupt society, and vice versa,” said Delia. “We must fight corruption every day.”

In favour of the life of those who uncover corruption

Turning to the week’s revelations from The Daphne Project, Delia said he was also “in favour of the life of a journalist who had been condemned to death for what she wrote”.

He said that a democratic western society like Malta “used to be” could never allow the government of the day to boast about directing resources towards finding whoever commissioned the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, only to then spend its time selling “Malta’s sovereignty” abroad.

“I am in favour of the life of the sovereign Maltese people in their own country. I am in favour the life of those who fight corruption. I am in favour of those who have the courage to stand up and speak for the country. I am in favour of the country,” he said. 

Delia accused the government of inflicting more damage on the country’s reputation this week. He said there was now proof of funds from Azerbaijan having been transferred - via a Latvian bank which was closed down because of money laundering - to the Dubai company 17 Black, which it was revealed was intended as a target client to Panamanian companies set up by Tourism minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.

“This is what we have turned our Malta into, a casino,” he said.

He pointed out that Mizzi and Schembri’s statements on Wednesday contradicted each other and questioned which one of the two was lying.

“One of them or the other is lying, or they are both lying,” he insisted.

Another minister who was lying, said Delia was Economy minister Chris Cardona, who he said had first stated that he  “didn’t know where and with who he was drinking and who then said that maybe”.

He said that in the coming days the people would also know the truth about whether the minister had lied about visiting a brothel in Germany last February.

“Did Joseph Muscat know about all these lies beforehand,” he asked. “And what did he do when he found out? He did absolutely nothing.”