Edward Zammit Lewis WASN’T at the citizenship negotiation meetings with the Opposition, but he walked out with the PM as though he was.
Edward Zammit Lewis, who is not a cabinet minister but a parliamentary secretary answerable to Minister Chris Cardona, has been pushed forward by the government as somehow being part and parcel of this whole sale-of-citizenship thing.
Zammit Lewis has even given press conferences about it with Manuel Mallia, with his boss Chris Cardona written out of the equation. And Zammit Lewis has even travelled to speak at conferences about buying Maltese passports.
On Saturday, 21 December, when the prime minister emerged from the front door of the Auberge de Castille wearing ‘dad’ jeans and a The North Face padded gilet, and walked down the stairway to tell the waiting press that there had been no breakthrough in talks with the Opposition, he was accompanied by two of those who were on his side of the negotiating table: Louis Grech and Owen Bonnici.
The PM’s personal assistant and chief of staff, Keith ‘Kasco’ Schembri, who had been there too, did not walk out with them. Instead, he was replaced in the staged ‘dramatic but casual exit from the negotiating room to face the press’ by Edward Zammit Lewis.
Zammit Lewis walked out with them as though he had been a party to the negotiations all through and as though he had been at that very negotiation meeting. But he wasn’t. Not only was he not at that very meeting he was supposed to have walked out of, but he wasn’t involved or present in any of the other five meetings.
So what was he doing there – to lie to the public yet again, this time by pretending that he was part of the negotations when he wasn’t?
Why do something like that and not just be straight?
The composition of the negotation meetings between the government and the Opposition was as follows.
The first three meetings: Jason Azzopardi and Karol Aquilina for the Opposition; Manuel Mallia and Owen Bonnici for the government.
The second three meetings: Simon Busuttil, Jason Azzopardi and Karol Aquilina for the Opposition; Joseph Muscat, Keith ‘Kasco’ Schembri, Louis Grech and Owen Bonnici for the government (Owen Bonnici was not at the fourth meeting, though).
Joe Bannister, Malta Financial Services Authority chief, was there as a ‘mediator’, but ended up sitting alongside one of the parties (the government) at the prime minister’s press conference announcing the (cosmetic) changes.
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George Vella President.
Louis Grech Commissioner.
Ian Borg Deputy Prime Minister.
Zammit Lewis Minister Foreign Affairs.
You wait and see.
No. Manuel Mallia Deputy Prime Minister.
Beware the ides of March.
Remember that last summer, Karmenu Vella already occupied the post of acting prime minister.
Not sure about the third one. Bet you’re right on the others.
I’ll s**t my pants more than I already am at this point if a 28-year old novice becomes our deputy Prime Minister.
We have a ex-Super One reporter for a PM, don’t be surprised
One wonders who finalised the details of the legal notice.
Some time back someone from Henley and Partners gave all reassurances they were doing their utmost to limit changes.
Muscat may have a 9 seat majority, definitely not the clout. What a waste.
The legal notice was enacted by the President of the Republic.
Maybe Kasco imagines himself as some modern day Rasputin, the real power behind the Muscats of the House of Romanov.
That said, I hope that nobody will dedicate to him any Boney M songs of servicing our Tsarina.
We do have a bunch of liars. Zammit Lewis was quoted in an interview that “it-tibdil sar bi qbil mal-korpi kostitwiti”.
We all know that this is a blatant lie and that a meeting with the MCESD is due to be held on Friday 10 on the insistence of the said constituted bodies.
Kelma wahda tiddeskrivi dan il-gvern – I M B A R AZ Z.
Hitler comes to mind : Repeat a lie several times and in the end it will be believed
This saying is in fact attributed to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s Propaganda Minister in Nazi Germany.