WATCH IT HERE/The Le Iene video everybody is talking about

The title translates as THE ITALIAN COMPANY SHAFTED BY THE MALTESE GOVERNMENT.

The owner of the Italian company says to camera: “Payments were regular and punctual until the new government took over.”

The company is facing bankruptcy and its employees, all of whom have families, are facing redundancy in an economic situation where they will find it difficult or impossible to get another job.

Muscat, wearing what passes for black tie, laughs in the face of the company’s predicament despite claiming to be pro-business, and cracks jokes about a situation in which many families will lose their livelihood, though admittedly he has never claimed to have a social conscience or any other kind of conscience.

When cornered by questions and accusations he finds difficult to handle, he does his usual thing and lashes out at his challenger with a spiteful come-back, calling the Italian prime minister a “furbo”, the literal translation of which is ‘sly’ but which has connotations of thievery, cheating or conning.

And towards the end, when he is really distressed – remember that he is being watched by his security personnel and other guests at the event, so his shortsighted priority is to put on a show of bravura for their benefit, forgetting the massive Italian and Maltese TV audience that Le Iene has – he forgets himself in his rudeness, ceases to use the polite form which is essential in Italian, and begins to use the second person singular, ‘te/tu’.