The Nationalist Party has urged the police to investigate Cabinet members for the potential embezzlement of public funds that were used on the personal social media pages of ministers and parliamentary secretaries.

“If you are caught stealing money, you must return it,” PN MP Karol Aquilina told a press conference. “Justice must take its course and the police must investigate all those who used public funds to promote themselves. The Standards Commissioner has published a report and the police shouldn’t need me to tell them to investigate.”

Aquilina urged Prime Minister Robert Abela to force his Cabinet to repay all the public funds they used on their social media pages over the years.

“We understand there are hundreds of thousands of euros they must pay back but that’s a problem they created for themselves,” he said.

“They spent a large sum of money and must now repay a large sum of money.”

Opposition MP Therese Comodini Cachia wanted that this practice has allowed the government to “distort” the message on Facebook and drown out the independent media’s voice through several well-funded partisan messages.

“The government isn’t only dominating public broadcasting but also social media, and we understand they also plan to dominate local media,” she said.