The situation within the Nationalist Party clearly shows that Labour is the only political force capable of leading the country, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Sunday morning.

Speaking in Zabbar, Muscat referred to the infighting in the PN, saying that the party was not even capable of leading the Opposition, let alone the entire country.

If such a situation was to take place within a governing party, the entire country would grind to a halt, he said.

Muscat referred to the court ruling, delivered this week, which said that there will be no Panama Papers inquiry. Former PN leader Simon Busuttil criticized the decision, describing it as “unbelievable.”

The PM said Busuttil, who always preached about the rule of law, should respect the court’s decision. The PL, he said, had never attacked the courts, not even when it had two Parliamentary seats taken away. “What’s unbelievable is the lies he (Busuttil) came up with, in the first place,” the PM said.

Muscat said the PN was caught up in the same state of mind it was caught up in after the divorce referendum. “If it wasn’t for the PL the people’s decision would not have been respected.”

He said the fact that the country had a splintered Opposition placed a much bigger responsibility on the government.

The PM also referred to the latest migration saga, speaking about the great pressures he had faced from both extremes. While some people believe in an open door policy, others would have the migrants drown, he said.

“This week we found ourselves between a rock and a hard place. The NGOs could have taken the migrants back to Libya which was closer, to Tunisia, another safe country that was closer to us, or to Italy. But this did not happen. We were the farthest country but they came here. We were lumped with a problem we were not responsible for. We told the EU that this could not be a Maltese only solution – that this is a European solution. Just a few days earlier our AFM saved another 250 people without argument.”

“We have rules to follow, but so do the NGOs. If rules for them do not exist then they have to be created.”

Muscat said the government had argued that if the EU was being asked to step in after Italy closed its ports, then it should also help Malta with a problem it was not legally responsible for.

Thanks to Malta’s negotiations with the EU, member states had agreed to take not only the migrants rescued by the NGOs but also half of the migrants rescued by Malta. 

“We do not have a magic wand. This situation is untenable,” he said, referring to ad hoc agreements.

“Spring and summer will come and we need a solution where we understand each other. Europe cannot be a free for all. But on the other hand, the continent that aspires to lead at a time where there is a global leadership vacuum closes an eye to real humanitarian cases. We need to be sensible.”

Muscat also referred to a recent statistic that showed that Malta is one of only 20 countries in the world with full democracy. But while Malta had a “cutting-edge” democracy, he said, it still lacked female participation on politics.

He also spoke about land reclamation, rubbishing a report that claimed that a sizeable tract of land would be built in the sea along the Xghajra coast. He said someone had leaked an unfinished ERA report to damage the government. “Do you think we would do something to hurt the south or any other part of the country?”

Muscat said the country needs to think about land reclamation but there are ways of doing things without hurting anyone. “Land reclamation does not mean building an island and filling it with skyscrapers.”

He noted that land had been reclaimed from the sea at Msida and the Freeport. “It has to be environmentally sustainable,” he insisted.  

 

PN statement

Reacting, the Nationalist Party said that if Muscat really wants Malta to be in the European top ten for democracy, he should see to it that the institutions are not hijacked by his own government. He should ensure that the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner are not simply in place to obey the instructions given to them by government.  

If democracy in Malta truly functions, Muscat should see to it that the AG passes a copy of the full Egrant inquiry to the Opposition Leader, the PN said.