Jason Azzopardi Hits Out At PN MPs For Quoting Joseph Muscat’s Latest Economic Survey
Former PN MP Jason Azzopardi has hit out at his old colleagues Ivan J Bartolo and Robert Cutajar after they urged the government to take heed of an economic survey commissioned by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
“When you end up quoting a man who was named the most corrupt politician in the world to make a political point, it means the time has come to profoundly examine why you are in politics,” Azzopardi said, a reference to how the OCCRP had named Muscat the ‘man of the year’ for corruption in 2019.
“Let me try and understand. You deny and discard honest people simply because they had worked with Lawrence Gonzi, but then use Muscat to prop up your arguments,” Azzopardi said, referring to how PN leader Bernard Grech had excluded Mario De Marco, Chris Said and Carm Mifsud Bonnici from his Shadow Cabinet because they had served in the Cabinet of the last PN administration.
In a statement today, Bartolo and Cutajar said Muscat’s survey proves that Malta is facing significant economic challenges.
“While [Muscat’s surveys] had originally forecast that consumer confidence would start recovering this year [following vaccination against COVID-19], the results speak otherwise,” the PN MPs said.
“This lack of consumer confidence is having an impact on a number of economic sectors and on public revenue.”
Weighing in on the controversy, Planning and Administrative law lecturer Robert Musumeci said he cannot understand the issue behind a political party quoting factual findings from “an entity who is credible in the material”.
“Academics has no confines and it isn’t a poker game either,” he said. “Those who are credible in an issue remain credible it. God forbid if we only take note of what our friends tell us in parliamentary debates when we carry out literature reviews.”
What do you think of Jason Azzopardi’s statement?
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