Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/829623
maltatoday, MONDAY, 29 MAY 2017 7 News Integrity more important than money, Busuttil tells mass meeting Simon Busutitl: 'The values of honesty and integrity are more important than money...Joseph Muscat is mistaken if he thinks he can buy everything because we are not for sale' TIM DIACONO PN leader Simon Busuttil laid into Joseph Muscat's electoral pitch of Malta's economic suc- cess, telling tens of thousands of supporters at a mass meet- ing in Sliema yesterday that "the principles of integrity and hon- esty are more important than money". "Muscat is telling the public that they should allow him to do whatever he pleases because now they have more money in their pockets," he said. "However, I am telling you that money is not everything and that the values and principles of honesty and integrity are more important. Prime Minister, if you think that you can buy eve- rything then you are mistaken, because we are not for sale." Busuttil said that law-abiding taxpayers of goodwill were dis- gusted and angry at the Labour leadership and were question- ing why they had to pay their taxes and obey the law, when minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri were being al- lowed to get away with murder. "They are asking why these people have their snouts in the trough, while they can hardly get by till the end of the month. This country has lost all sense of justice." The PN mass meeting in Dingli Street, Sliema, the PN's penultimate one before the June 3 general election was attended by several thousands of people, with crowds spilling out into the side streets as far away as the Tlett Sigriet. In his speech, Busuttil used a metaphor to describe the cur- rent political situation. "Imagine two thieves fleeing your house with your money and the family silver and jump- ing into a getaway car. You fol- low them and see them dump- ing the money into a washing machine, and you file a police report but the police do noth- ing. The driver of the getaway car then tells you that you are damaging the country and that you should resign yourself," he said. "Joseph Muscat might want to live a lie, but we don't want to live in his lies and we will prove that to you on Saturday." He recounted how Muscat, in his debate on Xarabank on Fri- day, had tried to insult him by pointing out that his hands were sweaty. "I am proud that I sweat for the Maltese people and for my country, but I will never ever drown in corruption," he said. "Hands that are smeared with corruption will remain dirty no matter how often they are washed." Busuttil accused Muscat of pinning the blame for allega- tions pointing to his wife own- ing the secret Panama company Egrant on the whistleblower that came forward, the Russian security services and the inves- tigating magistrate. "He believes that everyone is responsible and that everyone is harming the country except for himself," he said. "We are here to tell him that what is wrong can never be made right." Busuttil reaches out to undecided voters, Labourites, switchers "I urge those undecided peo- ple who are proud to be floating voters and who will never asso- ciate themselves with a political party, to vote for our country's future," he said. "We don't care who you are, where you come from and whether you hold beliefs differ- ent to ours. We only care that we can come together to choose our country on 3 June. If you choose Malta, then I pledge that I will lead a government that is there for you from the very first day and not only before the elec- tion. We will not let you down." He also reached out to Labour voters who were split between their loyalty to the party and their love for the country. "I promise you that we will give you what you had hoped for back in 2013 – that Malta will truly be taghna lkoll, that the government will work with peo- ple of all beliefs and with a zero tolerance for corurption. Mus- cat used you for you vote and then discarded you, but we will never ever discard you because we will be there for everyone." He recounted how PD candi- date and former Labour whip Godfrey Farrugia had pledged to hold up "the torch of hones- ty", in reference to a traditional symbol of the Labour Party. "The torch has been turned off and it no longer shines, and I urge you to help us turn this torch of honesty and righteous- ness back on to help guide us to- wards the country's future." To the traditional PN voters who switched to Labour in 2013, he said he understood their pain at how the PN government had detached itself from the public. "We have learnt our lesson, we have matured, and will not repeat these mistakes again," he said. "As Nationalists and as Maltese people, I urge you to vote for the National Force and our country." German MEP at PN mass meeting: 'Malta needs change, it needs Simon Busuttil' TIM DIACONO GERMAN MEP Manfred Weber has urged the Mal- tese public to vote for Simon Busuttil as their new prime minister, telling a National- ist Party mass meeting in Sliema yesterday that "the future of Europe is without corruption". "When I look in your eyes and smell the atmosphere here, it smells and looks like change," Weber – the chairman of the European People's Party in the Euro- pean Parliament said. "Malta needs change, it needs a new government and it needs Si- mon Busuttil. I know Busut- til as an honest man, a man of integrity, a true friend and a true leader." He said the EPP is following closely the Panama Papers scandal and the recent politi- cal developments in Malta. "It was scandalous that minister Konrad Mizzi has been entrusted to chair the EU energy council and we consider that to be an em- barrassment for Europe, we have taken note as to how Keith Schembri disrespected the European Parliament and democracy itself [by turning down an invitation to the Pa- na committee]. "This behaviour is not Malta, this corruption is not Malta, Joseph Muscat is not Malta. Malta deserves a bet- ter future; you will be the fu- ture of Malta. "Your vote isn't only for the future of Malta, but for the future of Europe, and the future of Europe is without corruption. Europe isn't per- fect but, when compared to other countries like the USA, we know how good the Euro- pean way of life is." He added that the fall of the Labour Party will follow in the wake of the fall of social- ist parties all across Europe. "The socialists are dead in France, they are practically dead in the UK, and they are not doing so well in Germany either."