Criticism posted by a restaurant owner on Minister Ian Borg’s Facebook page escalated when Minister Ian Borg repeatedly called the man pastaż (vulgar).

Claude Camilleri, who has been losing clients since campers started parking their caravans illegally outside his terraced restaurant around 2008, was initially reacting to an advert on the minister's page by touting its successes, when he posted:

“Sort Mistra Bay out. Your abject don't give a f**k attitude has destroyed our business, trashed our Bay and made a favela out of an idyllic bay… This is about our basic human rights to earn a living and you are criminally depriving us of this through your negligence.”

Mr Camilleri had previously told Times of Malta that he had flagged the issue with ministers, the Malta Tourism Authority, the police and the local council among others, and had even filed a criminal complaint against the police for their lack of enforcement.

The administrator of the Minister Borg’s Facebook page responded by mistakenly sending Mr Camilleri a message that was meant for the minister.

It read: X'ħa ngħidlu dal pastaż? (What should we tell this insolent person?)

The mistake was flagged by Minister Borg, who personally sent a message to Mr Camilleri explaining that the message had been sent to him by accident, but that he was unapologetic for Mr Camilleri having been called a vulgar man.

He asserted that Mr Camilleri’s tone was indeed that of an insolent person seeing as he did not know the person he was addressing the message to. Nevertheless, he had every right to be vulgar and likewise, the administrator had every right to refer to him as a pastaż, he supplemented.

Mr Camilleri’s response read:

“Outside my restaurant in Mistra Bay I have 23 illegally parked caravans with enforcement notices issued by your department dating back from 2011. One of the enforcement notices was issued following your instructions in June. The latest enforcement notice was issued over a month ago. All you have to do to prove to people that you are fair and you mean business is to tow these caravans away and give us our bay back. Show people that you have organs to orgasm with. It is my right to earn a living. It is my right to have access to a public beach. You are failing me. You are failing my family and you are failing my employees.”

Dr Borg responded by again calling him pastaż, but reasserted that he had the right to be one, and finally added that he was going to forward his concerns to the relevant authorities.