Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that he doesn’t want a situation where foreigners are comfortable and the Maltese break their backs.

He was speaking during the first leaders’ debate leading up to the 2019 MEP and local council elections, to be held on 25 May.

The two party leaders clashed over Malta’s immigration policy. The debate was moderated by Saviour Balzan and aired on the programme Xtra, on TVM.

Asked about wanting skilled foreigners to come to Malta, and whether this will put the Maltese middle-class in a more precarious situation, Delia said that the PN’s electoral programme states that anyone who deserves protection will be given such protection. He said that the country must be strong with those foreigners who are not eligible for protection and harsh with those who abuse those who are vulnerable.

He said that the government wants to expand the economy by increasing the population. He said that Malta is the smallest EU country with the highest density. He said that this economy is not sustainable and that the government admitted to the economy needing thousands more foreign workers a year.

“We believe that this is not sustainable. Did a carrying capacity study take place?  How high a population do we want?”

Asked about local wages, Muscat had said that wages locally rose by around 20% since 2013. 

“I want every Maltese person to become well-off,” Muscat said. As for how many people the country can take, he said that “the Opposition Leader should have asked that question 15 years ago when Malta joined the EU, as through EU regulations, there are 500 million people who can come to Malta if they want, and nobody can stop them... I am not saying that 500 million will come. When there were people bringing this up 15 years ago it was said that they were scaremongering.”

Muscat said that the main issue of the Opposition is inconsistency. He said that when elected to government he sent a signal to the EU on third country migration and threatened a pushback. “A number of lawyers, including Delia, signed a letter asking me not to do this. So because the wind blew one way he signed a letter telling me not to issue a pushback, and now today we are coming here to try and scare people with foreigners.”

Delia argued that many foreigners coming to Malta are not from the EU. He said that he has no problem with people coming to Malta as long as there is a plan.

Muscat argued that Malta should bring in foreign workers for positions as is needed, adding that if the country needs carers for example, then they should bring in carers. “But if you give me the choice, I want the Maltese to be skilled.”

Muscat said that the number of school leavers in Malta reduced by 4%, adding that more still needs to be done. Muscat said: “I want the Maltese youths to take the skilled jobs. When I have a choice, my choice is that the Maltese become doctors, teachers and managers, and then I would bring in foreigners to go to work in the sun all day. If possible I don’t want Maltese people to go and pick up rubbish outside. All work is dignified, but I don’t want a situation where foreigners are comfortable and the Maltese break their backs,” the Prime Minister said.

Delia said that the Prime Minister wants to create a classist society, where the Maltese work one type of job and foreigners another type of job. “He has just made a fundamental statement. We don’t agree with it. I said that we need foreigners to learn from them and grow, but our country has a limit, and it is an economic argument.” Delia said that the PN is speaking about how many people the country can take. “Physically, how much can our country grow?  We don’t have a lot of territory. We need to establish sectors which create good jobs.”

The two also went head-to-head over the environment, infrastructure, and the strength of Malta’s institutions and good governance. .

Balzan asked Delia about PN officials going shoulder-to-shoulder with some people such as Greens MEP Sven Giegold, who had spoken out against Malta’s financial system and proposed the introduction of Article 7. Delia stressed that the PN would never ask for that article to be implemented or any such thing. He said that the damage to Malta’s reputation due to good governance was a direct result of the government, following one report after another such as those issued by the Venice Commission, Greco and the Ombudsman criticising the government over good governance and near dictatorial action. He said that the Prime Minister left people around him who continue damaging the reputation.

“How can we have the only minister mentioned in the Panama Papers still a minister? The damage to the country is being done by those who do certain things and the government does not do anything to fix the situation.”

Muscat was asked about the independent inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Aside from the criminal inquiry, why do you argue against its launch?

Muscat said: “Delia’s problem is credibility. If he uses the same scale he is asking me to use on himself then he would have resign a while ago. The allegations against him are grave ones. I say let investigations go first.”

“Moving to your question, I had no problem launching an inquiry into myself do you think I would have a problem with a public inquiry launching into someone else?   None of this. On the Attorney General and his advice, “he was appointed by the PN government not by us. We didn’t remove him. Most of the issues being raised today by international institutions are on laws implemented before this government’s time,” he said. He said that this government began working on them. Back to the Daphne Caruana Galizia question, he said that the question is not if an inquiry will take place, but when it will take place. We cannot be in a situation where such a public inquiry would put in peril the ongoing investigations, which are moving expeditiously, not only into those who allegedly committed the murder, but also the person who commissioned the crime.

Asked about inquiries into the allegations against Delia, Delia said that he knows of no inquiry or investigation into him. He said no magistrate, police officer or FIAU official spoke to him.