Labour leader Alfred Sant hinted yesterday night there would be a large scale purge if he is elected to government.
Referring again to Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s Mistra Bay development case, Sant called it “a case of corruption on a national level” and pledged he would “make sure to seal the room where corruption took place” if he is elected prime minister.
“They can’t accuse us of mud-slinging this time round. In this case we’ve presented a barrage of documents to prove this,” Sant said in Qormi where party faithful were setting off fireworks and illegal squibs (suffarelli). “And what did the PN do about it? They sent Joe Saliba, which means Gonzi was behind all that. They showed him (Pullicino Orlando) crying on Net, and asked the MEPA auditor to investigate. As prime minister, if he hears information about such cases he has all the means to make sure the traces of those who are corrupt remain on the carpet, and only then he should bring in the police. That’s not what Gonzi did. It’s useless hiding behind the smokescreen of the police commissioner if he hasn’t made sure the room where corruption took place is sealed and all traces are left where he found them.”
Referring to yesterday’s revelation that the prime minister himself had passed on the case to the police commissioner – whom Sant had last week described as a smokescreen for the first time – the MLP leader criticized Gonzi for doing the same.
“Today we went to the police commissioner. After Saturday we’ll make sure we will be the ones to seal the room before going to the police. When the commissioner told us he had a letter from the prime minister asking him to investigate this case, I said: here we go again…”
The party leader said the only threat a Labour government would pose would be towards the corrupt and the deceitful.
“Mention one area which they didn’t lie about,” he said about the PN. “You won’t find it. We don’t lie. We’re a threat to nobody except to the corrupt and those who deceive the people. For them, yes, we are a threat.”
About Pullicino Orlando’s unexpected presence as a “journalist” at his Broadcasting Authority on Monday, Sant said there was no way he would debate with him but said they would face each other in court.
“He expected to come to a debate with me. No way. I don’t speak to people like him. Or better still, we’ll talk in court, my lawyer to his lawyer.
Meanwhile yesterday Labour’s spokesman on health, Michael Farrugia, cited figures showing there were 238 fewer operations at Mater Dei last January than there were at St Luke’s in the same month of last year.
He said this was leading to longer waiting lists because there were not enough beds to keep patients at the new hospital.
The deputy leader for party affairs, Michael Falzon, told the Qormi people that their locality was one of the “thermometers of the country” and that it was marking a Labour victory.
“I’m not saying it just for the sake of it,” he said. “It’s the truth. The thermometer here is marking Labour.”
Hitting back at Lou Bondi and Daphne Caruana Galizia without mentioning them by name, Falzon said: “Yesterday on a programme it was alleged that Jason Micallef said disparaging words about someone. They should be ashamed, if only they knew how. Now we’ll answer him in our libel case. They’re ready to do anything in their state of panic. Did they think we would applaud our sons sitting next to us saying rude words?” – a clear reference to Caruana Galizia’s son, who told One News cameramen to “f*** off” at the university debate. “That kind of obscenity is only resorted to by the Nationalists who are ready to do anything at this point.”
Falzon added that “someone else” posted on a website that the alleged words about Bondi were actually said by him and that at the same time he carries the holy picture of the Blessed Virgin in his pocket.
“I’m not ashamed of this; I am a Maltese and a Christian,” he said to a roaring applause. “And I’m being prudent: I’m not even mentioning names.”
The other deputy leader, for parliamentary affairs, Charles Mangion, referred to Pullicino Orlando as “the champion of the environment” who was also now “champion of part-time jobs”.
“He deserves a new trophy, for being a part-time farmer, part-time journalist, part-time MP, and part-time dentist. No wonder that under Gonzi jobs increased through part-time work.