Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri is insisting that no COVID-19 regulations were breached when together with his family he shared a bowl of potato chips with Prime Minister Robert Abela and his wife Lydia on Sunday.

Camilleri uploaded on Facebook a photo of the event, taken during Sunday lunch at a restaurant in Gozo.

The photo, which went viral, followed the reopening, with certain conditions of restaurants which had been closed for two months due to the pandemic.

Conditions for the reopening of restaurants, issued by the Superintendence for Public Health, state that food, including condiments, should not be shared to avoid the risk of contagion.

But the photo showed the Camilleri and the Abela families with a bowl of potato fries in the middle of the table. This led to criticism that the prime minister and a member of his Cabinet were openly flouting the rules.

The matter was raised in parliament during question time on Tuesday by  Opposition MP Herman Schiavone who asked the Gozo Minister whether he had given a bad example.

In his reply, Camilleri played down the matter saying he had no issue with giving a list of who had taken chips while pointing out that his daughter took just one.

“We wanted to convey a message to the public about the reopening of restaurants,” he said.

The Gozo Minister insisted there were more bowls of chips on the table apart the one captured in the photo. 

“We did not breach regulations. It seems that the Opposition’s only intent is for the economic slowdown to persist for as long as possible,” he added.