A Times of Malta report revealing payments into a suspected political bribery fund linked to Steward Health Care negotiations with the government was further evidence of why the government and senior Labour officials were continuing to defend the hospitals concession, PN leader Bernard Grech said on Sunday.
It could also explain why the government was not insisting on the return of €400 million handed by the government to Vitals/Steward.
Speaking at a political event in Qrendi, Grech noted that on Monday the appeals court is due to deliver its decision over whether the State Advocate could, of his own volition, institute a court case for the recovery of €400 million handed to Vitals/Steward Healthcare by the government, or whether he could only do so on instructions from the prime minister. It was shameful, he said, that the prime minister had not taken court action to recover those funds. If no action was taken, such a court case would be one of the first actions of a new PN government.
"We will recover those funds, like we took back the hospitals," Grech stressed.
In a speech where he said the government was 'born and bred in fraud' the Opposition leader recalled that Robert Abela had promised 'continuity' upon his appointment five years ago, and that was one area where he had kept his word, with his government characterised by repeated cases of abuse and fraud, as was the case of the previous Labour government.
The people sometimes wondered whether the government had struck the bottom, only to quickly find it was sinking to new depths.
Following the June European Parliament elections, Abela had promised to heed the people and present the best version of Labour. And yet the abuses had continued, as was the phantom €70,000 consultancy job to the tourism minister's wife and Abela's defence of those involved, Grech said.
The people, he said, were angry. Over the past days, a father of two from a staunchly Labour family had met him at PN headquarters, telling him he would not vote Labour any more and would help the PN instead.
Grech said that like this man, he was urging others to come forward to bring about change because the country belonged to all the people, Nationalist and Labour.
He urged people to attend Monday evening's PN protest outside parliament, saying the people needed to show that the abuses had to stop.
"The people elected you, and it will be the people who will bring you down, no one can stop the people when they protest in the streets," he said.
In other parts of his address, Grech said the country needed a vision and direction. Malta needed properly planned and coordinated investment in the infrastructure, education and the health sectors. Under this government abuse and theft had even been made from funds allocated for a cancer machine, let alone the well-known hospitals concession scandal.
A new PN government, he said would strengthen tourism and the aviation, pharmaceutical and financial services sectors and also develop new economic sectors.
Supporters greet Bernard Grech in Qrendi.