The Nationalist Party is holding a national demonstration against corruption in front of Castille on Sunday.
This was announced this evening by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil.
Addressing a news conference, he said the aim behind the demonstration, at 4.30pm, was to give people the opportunity to express their anger at the situation Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi, the PM's chief of staff Keith Schembri and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had put the country in.
He said that since the demonstration was of a national nature, everyone was invited.
Dr Busuttil said four new facts had emerged from the Panama Papers scandal, which had made an enormous international impact of an extraordinary nature.
The papers caused an international furore with calls for investigations, resignations and protests in a number of countries. It had also led to the resignation of the Prime Minister of Iceland.
Dr Mizzi, Dr Busuttil said, was the only EU minister mentioned in the papers. He was among 140 politicians around the world but the only one in the EU. They were listed alongside people such as Azerbaijan dictator Ilham Aliyev and people close to the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The damage Dr Mizzi had caused the country, Dr Busuttil said, could not be calculated.
Dr Busuttil said that Dr Mizzi had been caught lying yet again. He had tried to open a bank account in at least two countries - Panama and the UAE, but these countries did not accept his request because they were not convinced that the money was not corruption money or that the minister had had the money from before he became minister.
Moreover, the papers showed that Dr Mizzi had every intention of introducing brokerage during his ministerial term. Both Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri told the banks they wanted the accounts to deposit funds from consultancy and brokerage.
MIZZI SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED FOR MONEY LAUNDERING
Everyone knew that a minister who introduced brokerage during his term would be introducing bribery, corruption and money laundering. Dr Mizzi should be investigated for this. Money laundering, Dr Busuttil said, came with a prison term.
The Opposition leader also spoke about the Prime Minister’s reaction which he said was senseless - one of a prime minister who had lost all sense of responsibility.
It was a reaction of a Prime Minister who made Malta the shame of, rather than the best in Europe.
Moreover, he made it clear yesterday that he did not have any intention of doing what was expected of him and dismiss Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri. He continued to defend them. This raised serious suspicions that Dr Muscat was also involved and that he was willing to allow the country to drown with him.
“I am not ready to do this and that is why I am here,” Dr Busuttil said.
Dr Busuttil described as an important development the fact that people from within the Labour Party were calling for the resignations of Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri.
“My genuine appeal to them is to not to continue to associate themselves with the shame Dr Muscat had placed the country in.”
He noted that the hit taken by the Malta’s Financial Services Centre because of this case was enormous and the damage could be irreparable.
“How can Finance Minister Edward Scicluna continue to defend the sector in Brussels if the first thing he will be told is why don’t you see what Konrad Mizzi is doing,” Dr Busuttil asked.
He said that Dr Muscat had changed the party’s statute to elect Dr Mizzi deputy leader. It was evident that he was involved. For the Labour Party to recover, it had to be cleaned from top to bottom.
PN SHOULD WITHDRAW SECRET LOAN SCHEME TO BE TAKEN SOMEWHAT SERIOUSLY
In a statement, the Labour Party said that for the PN to be taken somewhat seriously it had to first withdraw the secret loan scheme it launched a few days ago.
It noted, that it was the Labour government which had introduced legislation to increase transparency and accountability, such as the Whistleblower Act, that removing prescription and that on party financing.
These were laws on which the Nationalist government had dragged its feet for 25 years.