WATCH: ‘Did You Think The USA Wouldn’t Notice You Defending Konrad Mizzi?’, Impassioned Jason Azzopardi Asks
An emotional Jason Azzopardi has warned that Malta’s grey-listing by the Financial Action Task Force was the direct result of government politicians embracing and defending corruption.
“They protected criminals and betrayed the national interest, and now Malta has become the first EU country to be placed in the grey list along with Syria, Panama, the Cayman Islands, Zimbabwe and Ghana. Regular workers and pensioners will suffer because they wanted to protect their criminal friends. It’s embarrassing… I have no words to express my anger.”
“Eddie Fenech Adami built up Malta’s reputation and you threw it away in the past ten years to defend [former minister] Konrad Mizzi, that corrupt person who is still an MP and who hasn’t been arrested yet, and to defend the likes of Yorgen Fenech, Paul Apap Bologna and the Maksar brothers.”
“You should be ashamed of yourselves; you voted in favour of a corrupt person [Konrad Mizzi] twice. You accused us of being traitors when you are the traitors.”
Azzopardi warned PL MPs the eyes of the world were on Malta when Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri were implicated in the Panama Papers scandal and when journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated.
“What did you think would happen when you voted in favour of Konrad Mizzi in Parliament? Did you think that the Americans wouldn’t notice? What did you think would happen when Joseph Muscat went to the European Parliament and acted as though he could fool MEPs? Did you think that they would just let it pass?”
“You defended the corrupt Joseph Muscat just as you defended the corrupt criminal Chris Cardona. Do you think other countries think it’s fine for there to be an ex minister [Cardona] with allegations over his head that he was involved in a plot to kill a journalist? Do you think they think it’s fine for there to be a minister [Carmelo Abela] facing serious allegations that he helped plan a hold-up?”
Azzopardi also referred to how Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis and Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar maintained close relationships with Caruana Galizia murder suspect Yorgen Fenech after he was outed as the owner of the Dubai company 17 Black, and how Muscat invited Fenech to his birthday party after finding out he was the main suspect.
“Now you want to go out there with a straight face and say that Malta means business; you lost credibility and you ruined our country’s reputation. The people who created the problem cannot solve it.”
What do you make of Jason Azzopardi’s speech?
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