Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi took the opportunity to say it with flowers yesterday as he presented Mrs Gonzi with a bouquet of flowers and a kiss for Valentine’s Day during an activity in Naxxar.

Dr and Mrs Gonzi were taking part in a discussion meeting for families at Villa Arrigo. The PM’s discussion mostly focused on the environment, as did Mrs Gonzi’s, in line with the Nationalist Party’s strategy of tackling a subject a week.

Dr Gonzi said: “The environment is all around us and we experience it every day. We would miss it if it was suddenly gone one day. That is why we decided to tackle the Maghtab mountain – to turn it into more green and open spaces for Maltese families.”

Maghtab, he said, is a symbol of transformation. “We can now even generate electricity from the rubbish we have inside the landfills,” said Dr Gonzi. He also said that the government was worried about climate change, especially rising sea levels, with Malta being an island at risk of coast erosion.

“We cannot keep depending on fuel oil for power. We must start to implement more alternative energy production projects and we have started with photovoltaic cells, solar panels and the new scheme we have proposed to distribute five energy saving bulbs to all Maltese families for two years. That will lead to savings of e100 per five bulbs per year,” he said.

Dr Gonzi said that by 2020, Malta will be producing 20 per cent of its energy from alternative sources. He also spoke about the role of women in Maltese society and the various initiatives that the PN government implemented to improve the participation of women in the world of work. “We have a woman chairing a government body, we have women in parliament, we have a CEO, we have women judges. But we tried to do it in a manner that will allow women to keep up with their families too,” said the PM.

He also said that the government had introduced a one-year tax holiday for women if they return to work after having given birth. “And if they have two children and return to work each time, they will get two tax holidays,” he said.

The Prime Minister also referred to university and said that 60 per cent of students were female, outnumbering the males. Turning back to the environment, Dr Gonzi said that Malta needed to find more of a balance between sustainable development and a healthy environment, which was precisely why he was taking over the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, should the PN clinch another term in office. He said that the authority needed new dimensions befitting the challenges of today, which is precisely what he did when he took over the Finance Ministry after the last election. Mrs Gonzi also spoke briefly and touched on the importance of wellbeing in relation to the environment.

“A good, healthy and fresh environment is what we need for both mental and physical wellbeing,” she said.