Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil today insisted once again that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat should shoulder his responsibilities and resign, given that the promise on which he won the election in 2013 will not be maintained by his own admission.
Speaking at a press conference, Dr Busuttil said that the Prime Minister committed himself before the election that he would resign if the power station would not be completed within 24 months of taking office. Last March, during the TV programme Dissett, he had repeated the pledge, a declaration he made of his own free will.
The PM should resign because he did not fulfil the promise on which the Labour Party won the election.
He said that every time Dr Muscat is with his back to the wall he embarks on a schoolyard bullying campaign as the PL did in Parliament on Monday against George Pullicino. When the PL loses an argument, it viciously attacks the Opposition.
He said the Labour government had lied to the people on many instances, such as by saying that the existing power station is a cancer factory. If it was a cancer factory, why was it still running?
He had also lied when he spoke of a fixed agreement on the price of gas for 10 years and, after the election, it had gone down to five.
The Labour Party had tried to ridicule the PN when, before the election, the PN was saying that it was impossible to build a power station in two years. Now they have come to understand that we were right.
Dr Busuttil also listed a number of questions which, he said, the government should answer.
He asked when the power station promised by the government will start to be built and when it will be completed. He also asked how the government will be financing the costs of reducing the energy tariffs for industry as from March, considering that this pledge was linked with the completion of the power station.
Dr Busuttil also demanded the publication of the contracts linked with the power station and demanded to be given information on the gas pipeline project.
He said that the price of fuel was still 22 per cent higher than it should be. The price of oil on the ingternational market had dropped but the prices in Malta were still higher than they should be.
He praised the courage shown by government MP Marlene Farrugia for the questions she asked in Parliament with regard to the power station delay.
Addressing the media, PN spokesman George Pullicino said he has written to the Police Commissioner requesting him to investigate claims by Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi that the Nationalist Government had given a €35 million feed-in tariff contract.
Mr Pullicino said the Labour government measures matters by their own yardstick. “Wge we were in government, tenders were not decided by ministers. I never went to Spain to discuss tenders or overturn decisions of privatisation units or gave my wife €13,000 a month.”
Mr Pullicino said that the feed-in tariff was not his decision but had been authorised by the Malta Resources Authority.
Mr Pullicino's letter