Bernard Grech has accused Robert Abela of being out to intimidate him into silence by probing into the Nationalist Party’s financial affairs.
“I will not let Robert Abela and his buddies stop us from opposing their plan to strip people of their right to request magisterial inquiries,” the Opposition leader said.
He said Labour was rehashing “intimidatory” tactics it deployed during the 2022 general election campaign, when Grech reported a drone being flown over his Mosta home, shortly after Abela said the media should be asking how Grech could afford a “villa with a pool” on his declared income.
At the time, Grech and the PN were highlighting questions about Robert Abela’s property deals as a lawyer. Abela had denied having anything to do with the drone stunt.
Speaking on Saturday in an interview with academic Andrew Azzopardi on RTK103, Grech said Labour was resorting to the “exact same” tactics by trying to deflect attention onto the PN’s finances.
“But we will hold our heads high. We will not let them silence us,” he said.
Labour pundit Karl Stagno Navarra said this week that he has asked the courts to investigate Grech and the PN for a range of alleged financial irregularities dating back years. The allegations range from the party having failed to pay stamp duty for its workers to questions concerning the way in which Grech settled a €60,000 tax debt.
Labour leader and Prime Minister Robert Abela has also cited those issues in parliament, saying they merited investigation.
Earlier this week, Labour deputy leader and MEP Alex Agius Saliba also flagged some such allegations to the EPP, the largest political grouping in the European Parliament which counts the PN among its members.
Grech acknowledged that the PN faced financial issues but said Labour were “hypocrites” because it faced “even bigger problems than ours”.
“I inherited this situation and it’s been a long time coming,” he said. “We are fixing things bit by bit, but more remains to be done.”
He said a years-long delay in publishing the party’s audited accounts was now out of its hands, as all the paperwork was with auditors who now had to complete their filings.
Labour, the PN leader said, was on the attack in a desperate bid to remain in power.
Grech said his primary task when first appointed PN leader was to unite what was at that point a fractured party, and that he had successfully done that.
He also argued that he deserved credit for the party’s improved showing in the 2024 MEP elections.
“If a party moves backwards, then its leader is to blame. So if it moves forward, the leader deserves some credit,” he said.
In a 40-minute interview, the PN leader also dismissed suggestions that his former-right hand man Ray Bezzina was being paid by the party – “he is a volunteer, as am I,” – and downplayed controversy over his failure to attend a demonstration organised by NGO Repubblika last week.
“We [PN] are fighting a huge war in parliament over this issue. And when we organise protests, we urge people who agree, including Repubblika, to attend. We never shied away from organising protests for things we believe in,” he said.
Grech also pitched the PN as the party that could wean Malta off its reliance on cheap overseas labour.
Landlords who rented properties out to foreign workers need not worry, he added, “because instead of having four, five or six tenants, you’ll have two who can pay more.”
And the party’s immigration policy, he said, would also be fairer to long-term irregular migrants who have since settled in Malta.
“A person who came to Malta years ago, has now integrated but and was never processed due to government delays… that is the government’s fault and we need to find a solution,” he said.