In a wide-ranging interview to be published in full on Monday, just five days before Malta takes to the polls in a general election, Prime Minister and Nationalist Party leader Lawrence Gonzi unleashed a number of broadsides on the Malta Labour Party’s electoral proposals and campaign to date.
Describing the opposition’s campaign and electoral proposals as a “comedy of errors”, Dr Gonzi remarked, “In these past four weeks I thought we were going to be speaking about substance, but from the MLP we have not heard anything of substance.”
Referring to the MLP’s overtime proposal, Dr Gonzi commented, “This is what should really worry people. If they deal with their own (Super One) workers this way (paying them the usual hourly rates for overtime work), there is a clear benchmark of how they would treat all Maltese workers.
“Then there was the reopening of the EU package proposal and all the other ridiculous things related to that. Then we started to discover that in this blessed electoral programme of theirs, they are proposing things that we have already implemented. This has been a comedy of errors.
“On our part, we have been pushing forward our agenda with respect to education, we are proposing what to do with MCAST, the university, the new campuses and schools. We are also forwarding concrete proposals with regards to jobs: an economic package with a reduction in income tax, incentives for women to work and for small and medium enterprises.
“This is what should have been the beauty of this electoral campaign. What is the MLP proposing in education? Zilch, except for our children to lose one whole year.
“What in heaven’s name is Labour proposing?” Dr Gonzi asked. “Does anyone have any idea? I simply don’t. We are now a few days from an election and nobody knows what Labour is proposing. All we know are these blessed billboards around the country saying Gonzi jidhak bin-nies. Is this really what the country needs?”
Asked how confident he is at the moment about a victory at the polls, Dr Gonzi commented, “I think it is still a very close call and it is extremely difficult to say who is going to make it. I think the difference will be very close – that is precisely why every day counts and every vote counts.”
Speaking about a Cabinet reshuffle should the PN emerge victorious from the polls, and whether he would judge his ministers by their actions and not words, he added, “I maintain that is the benchmark that we should apply to ourselves as a government, to myself as prime minister, to my colleagues as ministers, to the whole parliamentary group and, I might add, to the party.”
Speaking about the possibility of a post-electoral coalition, Dr Gonzi remarked, “What I say is let’s wait for the results on 8 March. I hope the results would give us a stable, clear political situation. I respect the decision and position taken by Alternattiva Demokratika and the other parties. It is their right to propose alternatives, I listen carefully to them and I have listened carefully for the past four years.
“But it can’t be that I am facing a party that has been hitting us hard for four years and then, three weeks before an election, suddenly turns around and tells me ‘let’s set up a coalition’. That does not sound quite right, so I need to be convinced.”