Opposition Leader Adrian Delia has doubled down on criticism of Prime Minister Robert Abela on the 17 Black-Montenegro deal, questioning what prior knowledge Abela had when he took office in January.
Delia was speaking during an interview broadcast on Nationalist Party media on Sunday morning.
A joint investigation by Times of Malta and Reuters on Friday revealed that Yorgen Fenech, a prime suspect in the Daphne Caruana Galzia murder investigation, had made millions in profit via his secret company 17 Black, through a decision by Enemalta to purchase a wind farm in Montenegro.
The Malta police said it was working with Europol to investigate the deal, and the prime minister said on Friday that he was “disgusted” by the reports and expected the police to prosecute everyone connected to the case.
The company 17 Black had been revealed as a source of income for the Panama companies of former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and former Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi.
Delia said that the Prime Minister was taking people for a ride by expressing his disgust at the scandal if he had prior knowledge that the deal had been undertaken by members of his own cabinet.
“We are now realizing that at the time of Joseph Muscat's departure, the deal was not only that Muscat would leave, but that he would throw his support behind Abela and his ‘continuity’. Meanwhile people like Chris Fearne and others who were advocating change have been sidelined,” the PN leader said.
“We have to question what Robert Abela knew if after their resignation the likes of Konrad Mizzi and Lawrence Cutajar were kept on as the government’s consultants.”
Delia said that what the Nationalist Party had been advocating for years was vindicated, when even Labour Party veterans like Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo said that it was useless for the party to keep changing its outward appearance if the core remained rotten.
“The Labour Party has been hijacked by a few who want to use it for their own corrupt means. Labour supporters have been betrayed and at a time when the government should be helping people emerge from a time of crisis, it embroiled itself in serious party squabbles that were supposedly resolved months ago,” Delia said.
“To the Labourites who have been aggrieved, I have an appeal for you, you have to be courageous. I know that you love your country and you love your party, this is a difficult time and we cannot be afraid to do what is right. You are not betraying your party if you decide to do the right thing for your country. Only by working together can we clean up our country from this filth.”
On the upcoming Moneyval deadline (on measures introduced by Malta to deal with money laundering), Delia said it was now more critical than ever to step up the fight against financial crime.
The Opposition leader said stakeholders were worried what consequences a bad evaluation might have on the future of the financial services and gaming industry in the country.
“It is essential to get the go ahead on this report, or risk a number of businesses shutting up shop here,” Delia said.
“It is clear if we as a country do not show that people who commit crimes suffer consequences then we cannot prove that our structures are working. If we have proof that politicians have stolen millions and we don’t move against them, it's like we’re signalling to corporations to come to Malta if they want to run a criminal enterprise.”