Apologies are definitely due

It was quite hilarious watching PN diehards celebrating the court’s decision to annul the concession which had been given to VGH way back in 2015 and 2016, later passed on to Steward Health Care.

Seeing Adrian Delia, who had instituted the court case which led to this annulment, holding hands with Bernard Grech, who had ousted him with the help of those so-called “Blue Heroes”.

Mark Anthony Sammut – a protagonist in the ousting of Delia – hugging the former PN and opposition leader.

Karol Aquilina unashamedly said “Yes, Adrian Delia is my friend” when he too played a very prominent part in getting rid of his former leader.

And the way the crowd of PN diehards celebrated on Sunday morning, as if the PN had just won an election, and the violent way the same PN diehards acted the following evening in front of parliament, insulting and throwing coins at Labour MPs and overturning the steel barricades set up by the police as a security measure, is a very good indication of the politically desperate state of mind of PN diehard voters.

During their speeches, Delia and Grech, the former and present PN leaders, must have thought that they could easily convince whoever listened to their speeches that the government had “thrown away into a bottomless pit”, “wasted”, “stolen”, “squandered”, €300 million (originally it was ‘€500 million’, but was quickly downsized to €300 million).

Both are renowned for their bombastic comments. Such as Delia who, when still opposition leader, said: “A married couple had to work four or five jobs between them in order to afford going out for a pizza once a week.” While Grech’s most famous comment , in my opinion, was his most recent surreal claim: “The government had abandoned healthcare and done nothing to the infrastructure”!

Of course, both were sworn political enemies until – for convenience sake – February 24. They know very well that those €300 million were the salaries which the government had passed to VGH/Steward for all the surgeons, doctors, nurses, paramedics, administrative staff, carers, cleaners, security and the many businesses which provided goods and services to the three hospitals, including the management fee for their running.

So are Delia and Grech expecting all those who received their salaries since VGH took over the running of the three hospitals, and payment for goods and services which they provided, to refund the money to the government in order for the €300 million to return to the Maltese people, together with the return of the hospitals?

One final comment. If any apologies are due to Delia, then certainly they are due by Grech who accepted the request of the Blue Heroes to oust Delia as well as those who hatched and carried out the plan to try and involve the President of the Republic to remove Delia from opposition leader.

Eddy Privitera – Naxxar