Labour MEP hopeful Josef Caruana hopes that Nationalist MEPs are “thrashed at the polls” in next year’s European elections.

The former L-Orizzont editor who works in the communications department of Castille and infamously wanted critical journalists to “disappear” has now set his sights on PN MEPs who he described as “quislings”.

Accusing them of sedition, slander and perjury, Caruana said it his “sacred duty” to stop them in their tracks.

During his stint as editor, the newspaper’s editorials were often described as hate speech and were also condemned by the General Workers Union, which owns l-Orizzont and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. More recently, the hard-line OPM official attacked Archbishop Charles Scicluna and called for his resignation after retweeting a The Shift News article on the Maltese political system.

Caruana also made a number of insinuations on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder and shockingly suggested that the family of the late journalist was somehow involved in her assassination last October.

And in an interview with MaltaWinds, Caruana said that he is contesting the elections because he “couldn’t stomach the lies, slander, false news and conspiracy theories of the Nationalist MEPs.

“Sincerely I cannot stand such vile hypocrisy and shameless sedition. An unjust and immoral offensive on international level with no facts to sustain it, steeled my will to try to do something about it,” he said.

Vowing to stop this “base sedition,” Caruana said “quislings do not deserve to represent our country.”

He went on to accuse PN MEPs of aiming to take control of the country “by other means as they do not stand a chance to do so in an election” and said he is duty bound to “start cleaning the European stables and clear Malta from the bad reputation the Nationalists tried their best and their worst to blacken.”

Echoing Labour’s narrative that the opposition and critical European MEPs and governments are jealous of Malta’s economic success, Caruana said “some members who chose to assist and aid the PN representatives in their smear campaign against their own motherland, did so because they also envied our successes despite their tactics of infamy.”

In yet another rant he said “I hope that those who have dishonoured their country will be thrashed at the polls by a shocked electorate. But even if one of them is returned, I promise that he/she will not have an easy ride endorsing the same tactics. It’s my priority and sacred duty to the country and the people.”