Joseph Muscat has told the secretary general of the Macedonian government that if he thinks Maltese people are crooks, then he has clearly never met a Gozitan.
Secretary general Dragi Raskovski made the comment in a leaked telephone conversation with the president of a Macedonian air traffic control provider, in which the latter says that Malta had exploited loopholes in EU procurement laws to save money.
“I reject in the strongest possible terms the accusation that Maltese people are crooks,” the Prime Minister said during a press conference this morning.
“Or rather – we are crooks, but compared to the inhabitants of Gozo, we’re innocent little lambs,” he continued.
Muscat added that if Mr Raskovski wanted to see a real display of deviousness, then he should rent a farmhouse in Gozo, and get a taxi there from the ferry terminal.
“I guarantee that you’ll get fleeced harder than an American tourist at a Moroccan souk.”
Reacting to Muscat’s comments, Minister for Gozo Justyne Caruana said:
“Fair play, I can’t argue with that. If a foreigner offered me €100 to buy my mother as a slave, I’d haggle for €102 and ‘forget’ to tell them she’s diabetic.”
