Opposition Leader Adrian Delia today challenged Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to nominate someone from the Nationalist camp as next President of the Republic.
Speaking in Rabat, Delia said that if the PM truly believes in unity, then he should nominate someone from the opposing camp, just as the PN had done in the past.
“The next president should not be a partisan choice by the PL. The country needs unity, to do away with division,” Delia said.
The Malta Independent recently revealed that the government is to appoint former Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella as President after Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca’s term expires in April.
Muscat kicked off his Sunday speech by reading out a letter written by the Labour Mayor of Rabat, Charles Azzopardi, who has not been allowed to contest the upcoming elections on the PL ticket.
Delia praised Azzopardi for having the courage to speak up and for working for the benefit of all residents, without making any political distinction. “Our doors are always open for you and others like you - for those who know that the PL has lost its social conscience,” Delia roared.
The PN Leader said the PN had always believed in Local Councils and in the concept of decentralisation of powers, but the government was only interested in taking power away from councils, including in matters related to enforcement and waste management. The PN, with its 80 proposals, showed how much it cares about local councils. These include social proposals for community-based care and social services. On the other hand, the government wants to cover everything in cement and towers and wants people to live in cages.
Turning to the economy, Delia said the government’s only vision was to import thousands of new workers in a country that is already the most densely populated. All this was happening while innocent people were being left to drown at sea.
Delia insisted that the country should, rather rely on the construction frenzy, create quality jobs using the precious human resource the country has.
He referred to the blockchain company that has sacked most of its workers, saying that this was a result of a lack of vision and planning.
Delia said the government had “eroded” the banking sector, which is vital for all sectors, especially those related to financial services or blockchain. “It is useless for companies to come here if they are not allowed to open a bank account.”
Turning to Brexit, Delia said the government has to be truly prepared for all possible scenarios. The government, he said, has not given robust guarantees for the different scenarios, and it is duty bound to give certainty to investors.
He also spoke about Malta’s passport sale scheme, which, he said, had been dealt another blow in the EU’s latest report on the subject. While the scheme made money, the reputational damage to our country is much bigger, he said.
The government was now trying to justify the “dirty” scheme by promising to build 1,000 social housing units. Delia said one would have to see which developer would land the deal and whether everything had already been agreed in secret.
He asked, however, how many more apartments could have been built using the €700 million that the government was throwing away in the Corinthia deal. “How many businesses could we have saved?”
Delia said the land belonged to the people and the PN would fight to ensure that it was not given away as a gift. “This land belongs to us and to take it you have to go through us. We will not allow you to rob the Maltese people,” he said to rapturous applause.
He then turned to the Vitals contract, which is worth over €2 billion. The government had permitted in this contract a company called Technoline to skip the tendering process, giving competitors in the field the boot. “As if €2 billion were not enough, Vitals bought this company so that, for the duration of the contract, supplies would be bought from them.”
Delia pointed out that Konrad Mizzi and Chris Fearne were saying different things about the deal, but who would Muscat believe: “the one who negotiated a bad deal or the one telling him that the deal was bad?”
Delia pledged that the PN will fight every dirty contract and would nullify them once in government.
PL reaction
Reacting, the Labour Party said Delia had confirmed that his attack on the Corinthia group was a result of fighting between different factions of the PN.
It is a shame that the Opposition Leader is willing to jeopardize major investment because of party infighting, the PL said.
It said Delia had given no valid reason as to why the PN had changed its position since 2014. It was referring to a report, in it-Torca, which claimed that the PN was in favour of an earlier version of the Corinthia deal which would have cost the IHI group less than what it will be paying today.