Updated | Ian Borg and Robert Arrigo squabble over 'cracks' in Marsa flyover

Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg and Deputy Leader for Nationalist Party Affairs took to Facebook for a personal squabble over possible 'cracks' in the brand new Marsa flyover.

Arrigo opened fire first when he submitted a photo of an apparent crack in the underbelly of the Marsa flyover "with small stones falling from above", reminding his followers that this infrastructure cost the government €40,000 to inaugurate. 

"If this is fake news for Minister Ian Borg, then my name is Cristiano Ronaldo," he wrote.

Less than two hours later, Borg posted a photo of shirtless Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo on his Facebook page along with a few words that denounced Arrigo as a mere fake-news donor.

"Robert Arrigo is the latest acquisition in the fake news team of the Nationalist Party. He says he wants to be Cristiano Ronaldo but he has just scored an own goal," Borg said.

The infrastructure minister claimed that the photo that Arrigo posted on his Facebook page was not a picture of a crack but something that he had explained earlier.

"A shirtless Ronaldo is still a Ronaldo. Arrigo is still Arrigo, and that expansion joint is still the same one designed by architect Toni Bezzina," Borg said. "The apparent small rocks falling from the flyover are nothing more than deliberate material, such as light foam, that is temporarily in place before the expansion joint is installed in the coming weeks."

Borg denied that there was any damage to the flyover and that another layer of asphalt to the completed flyover and the one which will be inaugurated soon will be introduced in the coming weeks. 

"This ridiculous criticism will not deter me. I will continue to work with the hundreds of workers involved in this project to provide quality infrastructure in the south of Malta and to the people who I serve," he said.

The engineer responsible for the flyover, David Grima, told MaltaToday that the 'cracks' are not structure and that the flyover was "perfectly safe."

He reiterated the Borg's claim that the expansion joints would be installed in the near future and that the photograph depicting a gap between the two structures held no claim over the safety or otherwise of motorists.