In a strongly worded speech in parliament yesterday Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that the Nationalist government has its fingers on the pulse of the nation. He reminded the country that they will soon have to make a choice but warned them that proposals by the Malta Labour Party (MLP) would cripple the country.

Dr Gonzi was replying to Opposition Leader Alfred Sant’s address on Monday on Budget 2008.

In his speech, the prime minister replied, and rebutted, certain points Dr Sant made in his speech.

“The number of measures he mentioned surprised me, and I’m sure surprised a number of the opposition’s backbenchers. I seriously doubt if they calculated the financial, among others, impact of certain measures he mentioned,” he said.

If these measures were implemented then the country would be crippled, said Dr Gonzi.

He then queried why Dr Sant makes the same mistake each and every time.

“He was not expecting this budget – a budget that redistributes wealth – he panicked as could be clearly seen on Monday. That speech was clearly an election speech,” said the prime minister.

He said that Dr Sant has an inferiority complex – he is afraid for the country and believes that it needs to be protected all the time or else it will flounder.

The prime minister explained that the theme Families Growing Stronger (Familji fis-Sod) was chosen “because we believe that families are the foundation of this society.

It was not a capricious choice – a budget is a serious decision that makes use of the country’s finances for the families, he added.

“The people know that this message was translated into millions of liri that will go into their pockets,” he said.

Dr Gonzi pointed out that he had to repeat the message he put forward in the budget – “even though we are doing well, we have to be prudent and take careful decisions.”

The country made a lot of sacrifices and, as a result, the good results cannot be frittered away, he said.

Dr Gonzi went on to say that budget 2008 is not an election budget but one that keeps in mind the well-being of Maltese families.

“We listened carefully to what the Maltese had to say and their message was very clear – do not waste this money away,” he said.

He pointed out that the context of this budget kept in mind the imminent introduction of the euro.

“The euro will bring more foreign investment and create new jobs – that is why we wanted it,” he said.

The budget is also the last of this government’s legislature and Malta cannot lose sight of what is going on in the world – for example the international price of oil and grain, he said.

“We do not have oil and whenever the price of oil or grain rises we have to pay for it – it is paid for by the taxes,” said the prime minister.

He pointed out that he introduced a number of measures that were family-focused.

“The government is prepared to face any challenges that might crop up internationally,” he said.

The prime minister added that the budget created a very positive feel – around 76,000 children, 10,000 university students and 140,000 workers, among others, will benefit from this budget.

“My government followed the cardinal principle that we cannot give you from what we don’t have – first the country has to move forward and then the wealth is redistributed,” said Dr Gonzi.

He went on to say that his job was not an easy one as each decision affected the lives of the Maltese and Gozitans.

The prime minister called on everyone, especially the opposition, to judge him and his government on their actions.

“ Four years ago, we believed that a new start for Malta meant EU membership and only last Monday Dr Sant said that he had the full support of his MPs and will take full advantage of EU membership,” he said.

However, he said he did not forget, when four years ago, the MLP started calling for Malta to be “a Switzerland in the Mediterranean” but now are happy with EU membership.

“You never admitted that you made a mistake – you just changed your minds,” he said.

All that Dr Sant said during the past three years was wrong and time showed who was right – the government’s policy is giving results, said Dr Gonzi.

He said that the hardest time during his tenure as prime minister was when he found out that factories were closing down and that employees were going to lose their jobs.

Dr Gonzi referred to Dr Sant’s comment that bankers said that Malta qualified for the euro.

“I would like to tell him that bankers did not give me the certificate but they gave the country the certificate – something to be proud of,” he said.

He went on to say that he was embarrassed to go to other European countries since Dr Sant, when he was prime minister, froze Malta’s application to become an EU member.

“In 50 years since the EU was set up, not one country froze their application and Malta was the first one – of course you are embarrassed, of course the country is embarrassed,” he said.

In 22 months of government the MLP implemented all that they wanted to – all the wrong policies for the country, said Dr Gonzi.

“We should not be ashamed of this certificate – given to us by bankers and the EU,” he said.

“He has been head of Opposition for 16 years and has always taken the wrong decisions – even when he was prime minister,” said Dr Gonzi.

The prime minister then referred to the recent case revealed by The Malta Independent on Sunday where a number of Labourites wrote letters under different names claiming to be floating voters while praising the MLP.

“This is a joke – these letters in The Times and The Malta Independent – is this serious politics that he will use to convince the people?” he queried.

He reminded parliament that Dr Sant had a consistent history of wrong decisions and wrong advice.

The first cardinal mistake he made was to suggest that Malta remains out of the EU because the country will only receive Lm1 million in funds, said Dr Gonzi

Another three years ago, when Malta was preparing itself for EU membership, Dr Sant had advised against negotiating a deal with Skanska over Mater Dei.

“However, after he criticised us he was the one who went to the hospital and called it state-of-the-art,” said the prime minister.

Another wrong move by Dr Sant was the suggestion to devaluate the Maltese lira by 10 per cent.

“Do you know what this would have meant? That prices would rise by 10 per cent,” said Dr Gonzi.

However, he went on to say, he still had the duty to listen to what he has to say.

“We need to respect each other’s opinion and we work together when there is the need but we must not put spokes in each other’s wheel,” said Dr Gonzi.

The prime minister then quoted the opening lines of Dr Sant’s speech.

“Too little – too late was the first sentence of his speech – where did you get this from?”, said Dr Gonzi, much to the amusement of the ministers.

“His next statement was ‘the Labour Party agrees with this’ – where did you get this from,” he said. “Do you know that all Malta and Gozo was listening to you?”

However, said Dr Gonzi, this is an invention that he had to say because the MLP billboards were already up.

The opposition do not have the courage to admit they made a mistake when the common verdict, unanimously said, that it is a good budget, he added.

He pointed out that all constituted bodies, including the General Workers Union, agreed that it was a good budget.

However, Dr Gonzi gave Dr Sant the benefit of the doubt and stated “I hope that someone did not make a mistake when they wrote the speech – because otherwise Dr Sant is truly detached from reality,

He called on Dr Sant to be correct especially when he referred to the International Monetary Fund report.

“He quoted a part of it and said that the economy’s growth will decrease by 13 per cent – it is out of context as the report stated that the rate of growth for this year is expected to 3.2 per cent but then next year, it will grow by another 2.3 per cent,” said the prime minister.

Dr Gonzi said that he is very concerned about the cost of living.

“They made a clear statement saying that the time for price orders is over and that what is expensive abroad will be expensive in Malta – and I am very glad of these two statements,” he said.

“Following EU regulations, you can subsidise the impact of the international price of oil for those who cannot afford it even though it is not easy and costs the country millions,” he said.

“It also meant that the price of bread would increase and we did buffer part of the price hike in grain,” he said.

It is very important that the Maltese lira is not devaluated, emphasised Dr Gonzi.

The prime minister pointed out that among all the figures mentioned by Dr Sant, curiously enough, he did not mention the employment figures of the 22 months while he was prime minister.

He went on to say that the government wants to see industry grow and measures were introduced in the budget to help it grow.

“We saw a substantial growth in the number of tourists this year and the their expenditure has also increased but Dr Sant did not mention any of the measures that will be implemented to boost the tourism industry,” he said.

Dr Gonzi also pointed out that Dr Sant did not mention the long list of schools that were built or are almost ready but only mentioned two that were not done.

He then went on to say that Dr Sant found a report stating that Malta has a very worrying rating where corruption is concerned.

“We rage a constant battle against corruption and when we found someone we took them up to court – just like certain ministers did,” said Dr Gonzi.

I found a report too – The Index of Democracy – where Malta ranked 15 out of 167 countries – we have a lot to be proud of,” he said.

Dr Sant did not mention environment and record investment and only mentioned the golf courses without any land speculation, he added.

“I learned a lot – there were a lot of projects that could not be done such as the Xaghra l-Hamra golf course. Without villas it would not have made sense and no private developer would have invested in it and so the project was dropped,” he said.

He went on to say that he had a close look at the Labour document and pointed out that the pre-budget document had been printed two weeks before this document was published.

“The golf course is not in this document but he says that no more natural environment should be ruined especially through the construction of golf courses,” he said.

He said that he had a long list of items that were mentioned by Dr Sant that were not included in the document.

The prime minister announced that the government started working on an agreement with the medical association that will introduce new conditions for doctors allowing them to work in new hospital.

He added that he was scandalised with Dr Sant’s reaction to the pilot project of breast screening mentioned in the budget.

“I know there are logistical difficulties but these have to be faced”.

The budget has three important challenges: to take advantage of what the EU has to offer, to continue investing in human resources and to guarantee the high quality of life of the Maltese population.