The industrial action which led to the suspension of the publication of results for University and Junior College students was a “show of incompetence” according to Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil.

Speaking at the opening of a meeting with the University Students’ Council (KSU) this afternoon, Dr Busuttil insisted that the situation could have been avoided.

As a result of the ongoing industrial action, only results for students in their final year at University or in their second year at the Junior College are being published. University lecturers are demanding a revision to the collective agreement in a bid to receive an increase to their pay package equivalent to the one obtained by civil servants in their collective agreement.

The KSU has spoken out about the issue in a recent press conference, with council president Gayle Lynn Callus maintaining that students were suffering the most and that they ended up puppets in a dispute they had nothing to do with.

His words were largely echoed by Dr Busuttil during the meeting: the PN leader similarly argued that students ended up the victims of a dispute between two parties.

“The issue could have been avoided by the government,” the PN leader insisted. “This is a mistake, and a show of incompetence.”

During his opening address, Dr Busuttil also insisted that the government had deceived the young by pushing its “Vote 16” initiative – through which 16-year-olds would be able to vote in local elections – only to cancel local elections for the next four years.

“Vote 16 is now Vote 21,” he noted.

The meeting was sought by the KSU, which met President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca earlier in the day and which is set to meet Prime Minister Joseph Muscat tomorrow.

In his own opening remarks, Mr Callus observed that the council was seeking to determine what politicians’ vision were to see how it could work with them.

He also stressed that partisan politics had no place in debates on education, and emphasised that when the KSU took a stand, it did not simply reflect the views of the council but also of other student organisations and, ultimately, of the students themselves.