A very disgraceful opposition

The ugly scenes we witnessed in parliament by the opposition on February 24 were condemnable and disgraceful.

The opposition had decided to milk the 226kg cannabis heist from the AFM barracks to the last drop, notwithstanding the fact that three investigations are under way.

Although Minister Byron Camilleri was in no way involved in the decision to move the 226kg cannabis container to the AFM barracks and three investigations were immediately started, the Nationalist Party decided that Camilleri should be their main target, followed by the prime minister, who refused the minister’s immediate offer to resign.

Opposition leader Bernard Grech immediately demanded that, the following day, the prime minister make a ministerial statement about the heist.

But, then, on Monday, Grech demanded that a full-blown debate be held and not a ministerial statement. Another glaring example of how Grech is being led by the nose by the extremists.

When the prime minister rose to start his statement, all hell broke loose. Calls for a ‘point of order’ started being made, one after another, to stop Abela from continuing with his speech. Each time he was about to continue, jeers and insults started flying from the opposition side. At one point, we were reminded that carnival had arrived when Nationalist MPs present held aloft posters calling on Camilleri to resign. Which proves the shenanigans we witnessed were planned.

The PN created a visual representation outside parliament of the cannabis resin that was stolen. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The speaker had no option but to suspend the sitting a number of times, also to make a couple of rulings. In short, the whole Monday sitting was taken up by the opposition’s shenanigans.

Camilleri has never been convicted by any court.

The opposition’s unbelievable behaviour on February 24 has been noted and diplomatically condemned by possibly the only voice of reason on the opposition side, Carm Mifsud Bonnici, in his article ‘It-triq tal-irġulija’ (the gentleman’s way), in Il-Mument on March 2, describing the PN’s shenanigans as “a circus”.

This is why carnival was extended to end on March 9, with King Carnival Bernard Grech addressing the revellers at the end of the défilé led by Karol Aquilina’s carnival company, Los Políticos Desperados, thus pulling the curtain down on Carnival 2025.

Eddy Privitera – Naxxar