Updated 9.40pm with PL reaction

Robert Abela is the ring-leader of organised crime, Bernard Grech told a crowd that answered the PN's call to meet in Valletta in the wake of a huge benefits fraud racket exposed by Times of Malta.

Some waved the Maltese flags while others held up protest banners about the fraud. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The PN dubbed the fraud "Castille racket" after the PL turned down its request for an urgent parliamentary meeting over the matter. 

"We are living in surreal times. Abela is willing to lie to get his way. He is willing to change the law to get his way. He is willing to steal from the vulnerable to win power," Grech told hundreds who met outside parliament on Monday evening. 

Some waved the Maltese flags while others held up protest banners.

Times of Malta revealed earlier this month that former PL MP Silvio Grixti was at the centre of a fraudulent severe disability benefits scheme that saw millions of euros given to people who were not eligible. 

Times of Malta also interviewed three of the benefit recipients, including a man who said a Labour Party canvasser and a former minister’s aide lured him into the benefits fraud racket in return for his vote and a kickback amounting to a year’s worth of benefits.

On Monday Grech claimed the PL had resorted to the fraud as it feared ending up in opposition: "without power, they will no longer be able to control the institutions," he said. 

Ex-Labour MP Silvio Grixti has been implicated in a years-long racket to help “hundreds” of people fraudulently receive monthly disability benefits they were not entitled to. Photo: Facebook

"You should be ashamed of yourself: you sold your soul for power," he added.

"This was a scheme, and there were brains behind this scheme... it happened with the direction and protection of Abela - the ring-leader (perċimes) of organised crime."

The PN leader said that while Abela was the one who ultimately got the votes as a result of the fraud, the 'small fish' were being charged in court.

The middle, or the big fish, he said, were being protected by the Prime Minister and the Police. 

Grech urged the Police Commissioner to do his job "if he was still around".

Some 141 people have so far been ordered to return a total of €2.1 million in severe disability assistance benefits they were not entitled to, but the figure is expected to climb even higher as police continue to comb through all 761 applications that were awarded the benefit between 2019 and 2022.

Since Times of Malta exposed the racket, the government has also launched a three-person board led by retired judge Antonio Mizzi to look into the way severe disability benefits are dished out.

Some waved the Maltese flags while others held up protest banners about the fraud. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli 

'Solidarity with vulnerable people, doctors'

Addressing the crowd before Grech on Monday, deputy leader Alex Perici Calascione said the party wanted to show solidarity with those who genuinely needed social benefits but did not receive help as they were on no one's list.

He also expressed solidarity with doctors, specialists and consultants who spent a lifetime building a good reputation to wake up one morning and see their signatures forged.

People of different political beliefs were angry, he said, because what was wrong could never be considered right.

"This racket marks a new low for the country. It is a slap in the face all of that we know to be right. This is not a PN concern, but a national concern," he added.

Perici Calascione addressing the protest called by the PN after the PL turned down its request to call an urgent parliamentary meeting over the matter. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Grech addressing the protest. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Earlier on Monday, rule of law NGO Repubblika said Abela was not fit to be prime minister in the wake of the scandal.

And an association representing epilepsy patients in Malta has said its members were "infuriated" by the racket, which it said undermined genuine patients and added to the stigma surrounding benefits for severe disability. 

Meanwhile, neurologist Anthony Galea Debono said he and other consultants felt “raped” when they found out their signatures had been forged on false medical documents.

Bernard Grech has nothing to offer: PL

In a statement after the PN protest, the PL said Grech's unfounded insults towards the Prime Minister showed that, as a politician, he had nothing to offer.

The party said Grech had not yet understood that in order for people to realise that he was still around, he needed to come up with concrete proposals and not insults.