The Labour government has buried the country in the same problems that it was facing 30 years ago, and the time has come for it to re-emerge with stronger foundations under a Nationalist administration, PN leader Bernard Grech said Satuday.
Closing the party’s general council meeting, Grech said that we must re-discover the value of solidarity, respect towards the individual and the sense of community. This is the mission of people who love their country, and said the party is ready to work for a better future.
Grech said that the PN is ready to work with everyone and is open to welcome anyone who wants to contribute. We do not want a top-down approach, he said.
The PN is a library of ideas from different authors, he said, re-iterating the call he made last week that it accepts people of different thoughts.
Three days after making that call, Grech said that he received the news that a person with experience in communication and media, Chris Peregin, had reached out to join the party. Peregin had admitted to voting Labour in the past but now he realises that the only way forward for the country is for the PN to take over, Grech said.
More and more people are realising that the PN has the political will to bring the change that is necessary. Peregin had criticised the PN and Grech said he hoped that this criticism will not stop when they start working together.
Grech made the same appeal to others. He urged people to come forward to say where the party was wrong. Change in the country required commitment, he said, adding that the PN should be used by anyone as the tool with which such a change can be brought about.
The aim should be to build a country that is better than what it is today. Malta’s grey listing by the FATF does not guarantee a better future, he said.
He said many believe that the people get the government they deserve, which for some would mean that the Maltese are as corrupt as their government. He said he does not like this argument, because he believes that the Maltese expect better and they deserve better.
He said that in the recent past we have gone back to where we were 30 years ago. We used to complain about electricity outages, and it is happening again. We used to complain about political discrimination, and it is happening again. We used to complain about freedom of speech, and it is happening again.
Grech said that the PN is the modern chance for the country, saying that the party is willing to work for compromises that are currently being set aside.
Labour had first chosen tourism over health, only to reverse the decision and choose health over tourism. It had chosen development over the environment. It had chosen to bring in hundreds of foreign workers without studying the impact this would have on Maltese jobs. It had chosen bigger roads over a holistic approach towards a solution to traffic issues.
Grech said he wanted Malta to be ambitious, not mediocre. He said it is possible to have politics which inspire, and to have politics which take the middle road as against the extremes that are being adopted by the Labour government.
He said it is possible that the next election will not be a choice of the lesser evil, but one of extraordinary conviction that the PN is ready to be the government the Maltese want.