Muscat shoots down PN call for compensation for properties used by PL

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning shot down a Nationalist Party proposal for it to be given financial compensation for the disadvantage it says it is suffering because of the Labour Party’s use of properties owned by the state or requisitioned from the public sector. The proposal was made by PN General Secretary Chris Said in Parliament on Wednesday. He said it was not enough to have a party funding law, and the parties needed to be on a level playing field. At present the PN was at a disadvantage because the PL was profiting from properties which did not actually belong to it. (See http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141029/local/opposition-to-propose-financial-compensation-to-political-parties-for-discrimination-by-the-state.541836 ) Speaking at a political conference this morning, Dr Muscat said  this proposal did not make sense. If anything, in order to be taken seriously, what the PN could have asked for was for those properties to be returned to their owners, and not for financial compensation to be given to it, instead of the owners. His reply, Dr Muscat said, was that this was an issue which had existed for years and about which there were court cases.