Bernard Grech on Wednesday slammed Robert Abela for "allowing" Edward Scicluna to retain his "exuberant" Central Bank Governor salary, saying the prime minister was "weak".
"It is such an unjust that Scicluna remains governor. In theory, he is suspended, but he will continue earning €11,500 a month," Grech said.
The PN leader's was being interviewed on F Living TV a day after the government said Scicluna had agreed to suspend himself with pay instead of resigning.
Grech noted the prime minister had approached cabinet with the idea of axing Scicluna, but he was so weak that only a few of the cabinet members agreed with him.
"Many of the ministers went against Abela's proposal," Grech claimed.
"The prime minister is weak, and because of that, the country is suffering," Grech said.
Abela should have backed the PN's proposal and held a special parliamentary sitting to discuss Scicluna, Grech added.
"The prime minister could have had a unanimous parliamentary motion calling for Scicluna's resignation."
Grech's comments follow a statement by Graham Bencini and Jerome Caruana Cilia, who, at a press conference at the PN headquarters berated the suspended central bank governor.
"Scicluna does not care about the national interest. If he had the national interest at heart, he would have resigned as soon as he was accused. If he cared about the national interest, he would not have continued pocketing €11,500 a month," Bencini said.
Mosta Square was pedestrianised without a plan
During the hour-long TV interview, Grech said the PN wanted more open public spaces in Malta.
Earlier this month, the PN-led Mosta council announced they wanted to reverse the pedestrianisation of Mosta Square, which, for some weeks now, has been closed off to traffic on weekends.
The PN leader defended that decision, saying the pedestrianisation project was done without foresight.
"In an ideal world, we agree with pedestrianisation, but this needs a plan," Grech said.
He said quiet streets in Mosta that usually saw no cars were now seeing increased traffic over the weekends because of the square's pedestrianisation. At the same time, bus trips were being delayed by about 25 minutes.
He said that the project also negatively affected businesses in the area.
"The square will be closed off to traffic whenever there is an activity," Grech said. "That is something that used to happen before the pedestrianisation project."