Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today hinted that the government will be seeking the intervention of private companies to save entities that are in difficulty.

We did this to save Enemalta Corporation and guarantee the livelihood of its workers, he said. The same principle could be used for other “strategic” situations.

Speaking in Zurrieq, Dr Muscat did not indicate to which companies he was referring, but Air Malta comes to mind given the delicate financial situation that has been plaguing the national carrier for the past years.

If the government had not involved the Chinese in Enemalta, the corporation would have probably seen the end as we know it now as happened to Sea Malta and Malta Drydocks, the Prime Minister said.

What private companies can do should not be done by the government, he said.

Earlier, Dr Muscat invited one and all to ask himself or herself a question: “are you better off today than you were two years ago?” He then answered the question himself, saying that the country is much better off with controlled cost of living, salaries going up, unemployment going down and the country’s debt decreasing for two consecutive years.

He described this as a small economic miracle, given that all this is happening without the government resorting to increasing taxes.

More is to come, he added, as from the end of next month all companies will be benefiting from a 25% reduction in their energy costs, meaning that they would have €50 million more to spend in investment or savings. Last year we starting giving families €30 million more in their pockets by reducing the energy rates, as from this year it is the turn of all companies to start benefiting from the government’s measure.

Controversies being debated in Malta, he said without mentioning what he was referring to, are small in comparison to the difficult decisions that are to be taken in the European context.

Making particular mention of Greece, Dr Muscat said that while rules must be respected, there is also a need for more flexibility. “My focus is that the money the Maltese gave up to help Greece comes back,” he said.

He said that the Nationalist Party continued to pass on a negative message on what the government was doing. At the same time, it has to shoulder the responsibility of what happened in the past, under its tenure.

He mentioned in particular Nationalist MP Toni Bezzina, who the PN was still defending in spite of his alleged involvement in having workers sign a false declaration.

Dr Muscat said that the Labour government respected decisions taken by the constitutional court, which last week ordered that the PN is given two extra seats in parliament following mistakes in the counting of votes.

He said that the result as established by the voting was 39-26 in favour of Labour, and it was only thanks to amendments to the Constitution that four extra seats were given to the PN to establish proportional representation.

What the court ordered will not change much, he said, because Labour’s majority in Parliament is huge. But had this situation happened in the previous legislature, the government would have collapsed, given that the PN had a one-seat majority.

By appealing the ruling, what the government will be seeking to protect is the will of the people and what they voted for, he said.