People who do not attend Monday's vigil in memory of Jean Paul Sofia when they are able to would be “failing their country”, Opposition leader Bernard Grech said on Sunday. 

Sofia, 20, died when a building under construction collapsed in Corradino in December last year.  Since then, Sofia’s mother, Isabelle Bonnici has been insisting that an independent public inquiry should be held, arguing that it would go further than a magisterial inquiry and possibly help avoid similar incidents, ensuring her son would not have died in vain. 

An Opposition motion calling for a public inquiry, in line with the wishes of the Sofia family, was defeated in parliament on Wednesday, leaving the country angry and outraged at the decision.

Grech on Sunday questioned who Robert Abela was protecting by not appointing a public inquiry. 

“(Abela) you should have taken on the father figure role for our nation, not that of a lawyer,” the Nationalist Party leader said during a radio interview on NET FM.

“What are you hiding? Who are you protecting?... Are you trying to hide the truth about how the structure was built?”

Grech said the prime minister was compromised and could not take the right decisions, as he was careful to protect the “skeletons in his closet”. 

“You (Abela) do not want a public inquiry so as not to investigate the state, so as not to investigate the authorities, not to investigate yourself, your ministers, and Indis (the government agency responsible for industrial sites),” he said. 

“You do not want a public inquiry, instead you want to continue the mentality of ‘business as usual’. The leader of the Labour Party, the party that should fight for the workers, does not want to stop people from dying at their work place,” Grech charged.

A prime minister who “flees” when under pressure

Grech also recounted the emotional scenes in parliament on Wednesday after the government shot down the motion for the Sofia public inquiry. 

It was an embarrassing moment for MPs, Grech said.  

“I did everything to help this mother, this family, they were shouting at Abela ‘look at us’ and he continues to ignore them, that is Abela.”

He observed that immediately after the family was escorted out of parliament, the government moved another motion, to formally hand over Sliema seafront land already occupied by the Fortina Group - which has built a lido in front of its hotel. 

The Opposition voted against the motion. 

“He (Abela) does not learn at all, he continues to work for the big guys and continues to hurt and harm Sofia's family."

“And what happens when the pressure becomes too much? He flees.” 

On Friday, footage emerged of Abela leaving Malta on his yacht.

“Every day that passes and Abela continues to refuse to open a public inquiry is another day we stray away from revealing the whole truth,” Grech said. 

Failing to attend the vigil is a failure to the country

Grech's final comments during the interview related to the vigil which will be held outside the Prime Minister's office tomorrow at 8 pm. 

"Tomorrow is an important day, and it is important that you attend," Grech said. 

"If you are available to attend, but do not show up, you are failing your country," he said. 

"If you are not there, you are failing your family. If you are not there tomorrow, you will be failing Sofia's family, his mother Isabelle, and his father, John. We need to stand together tomorrow, as a nation, regardless of the colour blue or red, and show that we cannot let this country continue to go downhill and that we want a public inquiry."