The Office of the Prime Minister yesterday condemned the Opposition Leader’s “manipulation” of an interview Dr Lawrence Gonzi gave to The Sunday Times, saying it showed the opposition is concerned that people from within the Malta Labour Party consider the budget as having been positive.

In the interview, carried out in English, the Prime Minister said “I’ve received emails sent directly to me, even by people coming from the opposite party, from the Labour Party, acknowledging the fact that it was a good budget, that it addressed their major needs.”

This can be verified by the newspaper which recorded the interview, the OPM said.

The newspaper reported this quotation like this: “The reaction has been good – I’ve even had emails from Opposition members saying it was a good Budget and that it had addressed the country’s major needs”.

The MLP manipulated the word “members” used by the newspaper and changed it to “parliament members” to attribute to the PM something that he did not say, the OPM said.

In another statement, the government condemned what it said was a campaign by the MLP to discourage the people after the government announced “a war against cancer”.

It never expected the opposition to politicise the fight against cancer, the Department of Information said yesterday. The opposition not only did not say it supports the government on the issue, especially on the need to start a national breast screening campaign, but was turning the matter into a political football.

The government understood the human resources limitations, but if Dr Sant’s suggestions were to be followed, in four years’ time we would still be discussing if there are enough resources, the DOI said. The government has set a target and it will work incessantly to reach it.

The Labour Party is interpreting the word “members” used by the newspaper as “Members of Parliament” to attribute to the Prime Minister words that he did not say.

Opposition means the main parliamentary party opposed to that in office, and the newspaper had used the word “member” to refer to members of the said party, the OPM said.

In spte of clarifications, the MLP leader continued to insist with his “manipulation”. The OPM challenged him to verify all this with The Sunday Times and publicly state the outcome.

In another statement, the Urban Development and Roads Ministry said it was not rue that the Mtarfa by-pass was full of cracks.

The ministry said that Dr Sant is not realising what technological challenges have to be faced on the construction of the Manwel Dimech Bridge.