Labour in government would weaken health services, assistance to the elderly, assistance for housing and infrastructural improvements, the Nationalist Party said, interpreting comments by MLP deputy leader and finance spokesperson Charles Mangion.

The PN quoted Dr Mangion saying that what the high public debt meant for Malta was that the country would have to weaken these services. This admission revealed where Labour’s shortsighted vision would lead Malta if elected to government, the PN said.

What it amounted to, it added, was an attack on those who were most in need and on the country’s environment. In 22 months in government, the PN claimed, Dr Alfred Sant’s government had run up a public debt of e699 million and to make good for this, Labour had introduced 33 new taxes.