Updated 3.15pm with PN statement.

Remarks by Robert Abela about the rehabilitation of MP Rosianne Abela were irresponsible and showed his 'affiliation to fraud' the Nationalist Party said on Thursday.

It was referring to comments that the prime minister gave Times of Malta on Wednesday where he said that Cutajar had paid a high enough political price and it is time for her position to be "reconsidered".

He said Cutajar has been handed the equivalent of a political death sentence by being first kicked out of her position as a junior minister and then forced out of the Labour Party's parliamentary group. 

“Nobody should pay a never-ending penalty, unless the circumstances of wrongdoing are extreme. And she [Cutajar] paid twice. Considering her penalty, the time that has elapsed and her good conduct since then, I don’t exclude reconsidering her position,” Abela said. 

The PN asked how the prime minister could speak of good conduct by Cutajar when the Auditor-General had found that she had been fraudulently given a consultancy job at the Institute of Tourism Studies and that her's was a phantom job

Cutajar had not reimbursed the funds she 'stole' from the Maltese people and she was continuing to insist she had done nothing wrong, the PN observed.

In a country which believed in rewarding hard work, it was unacceptable that someone (Cutajar) was paid thousands of euro of taxpayers' money for a phantom job.  

"The prime minister's remarks are unacceptable and show how he is a hostage of people such as Cutajar, (former prime minister) Joseph Muscat, and Joseph Cuschieri," the PN said.  

Cuschieri was appointed head of Project Green on Wednesday despite having, in 2020, been forced to resign from the MFSA when it was revealed that he went on a Las Vegas trip paid for by businessman Yorgen Fenech, who was later accused of the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

At the time, Cuschieri was just weeks into his new job at the helm of the MFSA, having previously served as the regulator for Malta's gaming sector, leading the Malta Gaming Authority. 

A review board found it “abundantly clear” Cuschieri had breached the MFSA’s guidelines on hospitality by accepting the expensive and exclusive trip. 

PM regularising criminal links to Fenech through Cuschieri, Cutajar - Repubblika

In a statement earlier on Thursday, rule of law group Repubblika said Robert Abela was trying to regularise the government's criminal link to Yorgen Fenech by appointing Joseph Cuschieri to head Project Green and reconsidering Rosianne Cutajar's role within the PL.

The group slammed Cuschieri's appointment as "official rehabilitation of the mafioso and corrupt association between the government and criminals". 

Repubblika said that following Cuschieri's appointment, it was not surprising that Abela had said that Cutajar was being welcomed back within the party.

Cutajar, who serves as an independent MP, was moved out of cabinet in 2020 after Times of Malta revealed how she had benefited from a property deal involving Fenech.

Then last April she resigned from the Labour parliamentary group after author and blogger Mark Camilleri leaked chats between her and Fenech.

At the time, Abela had categorically excluded the possibility of Cutajar running as a Labour candidate again under his leadership and said the decision to force her out was proof that the bar for standards in public life had risen. 

But on Wednesday Abela said Cutajar has paid a high enough political price and it is time for her position to be "reconsidered".

Repubblika said Abela's comments implied that a government position and remuneration were some kind of right for Cuschieri, Cutajar and whoever was part of the PL or close to it.

"A public position is no one's right. It is a privilege reserved for people of integrity who are worthy of a public appointment because they prioritise other people's interests over theirs.

"Excluding people - who are manifestly corrupt - from public positions is not a punishment for them, but a form of protection for citizens," the NGO added.

"It is clear that Abela - most probably under Muscat's orders - is normalising the criminal association of the government with Fenech. The message that Abela and Muscat want to send out is that there is nothing wrong with being bought out by Fenech. What, so far, is not as clear is: What is Muscat threatening Abela with?"

'Cesspit politics'

In a separate statement, independent candidate Arnold Cassola said Abela was proving to be the worst prime minister in Maltese history and a "promoter of unethical cesspit politics".

He pointed out how Abela had appointed Cuschieri as Project Green CEO despite him having benefited from a trip to Las Vegas paid for by Fenech, "a person whose companies Cuschieri was supposed to regulate". 

"Moreover, Abela has now opened the door for the return of Cutajar, despite the fact that she had accepted expensive gifts from Fenech and travelled to Strasbourg to defend him at the Council of Europe sitting, without declaring her conflict of interest.

"She also boasted with Fenech, who had already been outed as a briber of politicians, that she was going to pig out since other politicians were doing so," Cassola said in a statement.