Bernard Grech on Monday slammed the government for “robbing” taxpayers and pigging out on millions of euros, then sending people a refund cheque.

Speaking in Guardamangia outside PBS and St Luke’s hospital at a protest  which, like Labour's event in Valletta was attended mostly by supporters from an older demographic, Grech latched onto the prime minister’s announcement that the annual tax refund cheque would be sent out soon. 

“Robert Abela will be sending us a refund cheque. We are used to this ploy now… You should refund us not only for the money stolen from taxpayers but also for the millions that you have pigged out on over the past 10 years,” Grech said.

Grech said the government had already recouped the cheque refund money by taxing people on their annual cost-of-living increase.

He said a PN government would go beyond just sending out cheques, by ensuring all workers are given the dignity they deserve.

The protest was held outside PBS, a stone's throw away from St Luke's hospital.

Grech said record inflation levels are hitting the most vulnerable, namely low-paid workers and pensioners.

He described inflation as “the worst form of tax.”

The Labour government, he continued, has forgotten the very people it was meant to represent.

A pact with the devil

Grech accused Prime Minister Robert Abela of being “compromised” by virtue of his relationship with his predecessor Joseph Muscat.

The PN leader said Abela had entered into a “devil’s pact” with Muscat, to ensure his ascension to Castille.

“Because Joseph Muscat helped him, he skyrocketed ahead in the leadership race. Now he tries to give the impression he has nothing to do with Joseph Muscat.

"We will remind people that you are weak, you are a coward, and you are compromised. You are there because you compromised yourself,” Grech said of the prime minister.

He pinpointed Muscat as one of the perpetrators of the hospitals privatisation “fraud”, along with his chief of staff Keith Schembri and ex-minister Konrad Mizzi.

Grech said all three of them knew that the people behind Vitals, the company initially awarded the running of three public hospitals, were “crooks”.

Bernard Grech gave a nod to ex-PN leader Eddie Fenech Adami, on the 19th anniversary of Malta's accession to the EU.

Grech also reminded his audience that despite Abela’s criticism of the PN government, the prime minister never missed a direct order under the Nationalists.

From representing the Planning Authority to being a lawyer for Air Malta and carrying out his own private work, Abela certainly cannot complain about life under the PN, Grech said.