In a wide-ranging interview Prime Minister and Nationalist Party leader Lawrence Gonzi speaks with David Lindsay in the lead-up to Saturday’s election about his perceptions of the campaign so far, his confidence of a victory at the polls, the contrasts between the two major parties’ campaigns and the possibility of forging a post-electoral coalition

In the 2003 election there was the EU issue and in 1998 perhaps the failed government issue. What would you say are the defining issues of this campaign?

I think the defining issue is where we want to take Malta in the second phase, the second legislature after European Union membership and translating this into a further improvement in our quality of life.

The biggest challenge ahead is the environment, and it is the environmental chapter that now comes to the fore in the next legislature.

This last legislature had the economy, finances, jobs, investment and education in focus. In the next legislature we will still have those, but the environment will take centre stage.

Gonzipn – is this a one-man campaign?

Absolutely not. It represents a vision that we think is best for Malta. That is, Vision 2015. I am the leader of this party, and I represent that vision.

It is also a message in which we are saying ‘the buck stops here’.

This has been my constant message since I first became leader of the party and prime minister. In the very initial stages, people told me ‘the difference between you and previous leaders is that you are much more hands-on’.

That is my style. I am, it is true, much more hands-on, but thanks to all the people around me and thanks to the Maltese people in general, look at the results we have achieved in the last four years.

We have achieved eurozone membership and have been certified by the European Union as having policies that are both credible and sustainable. We have reached record levels of employment, the lowest unemployment levels in the last 12 years, the highest number of women in the labour force, the highest number of students in tertiary education, the largest number of investments, multiple investments in education and the environment and record tourism numbers.

This quite an impressive list for four years’ work.

You ask to be judged on actions, not words. Would you apply that credo to your ministers in a future Cabinet reshuffle?

Yes. I maintain that this is the benchmark 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.

So yes, when I apply this benchmark and look back I recognise that not all has been perfect, there were failures along the way and there were things that could have been better.

But the best thing is that it is the EU itself that has judged us on actions and not just words. We are the 15th EU member state out of the whole 27 that has qualified for the euro, and that certificate speaks for itself.

You have ruled out the possibility of forming any sort of a post-electoral coalition, would you stand by that even if it meant the PN in opposition?

There are all these hypotheses. What I say is let’s wait for the results on 8 March. I hope the results will give us a stable, clear political situation.

People must be reminded that if we have a third party that sees a candidate elected to Parliament, the Constitution guarantees that whoever has the largest number of seats, even though with a minority of votes, would govern this country.

As such, a coalition could be created in such a way that would provide a majority of seats but not a majority of votes – that would be a disaster for the country. It would create instability and all the economic repercussions that that brings about.

I am hoping the electorate will realise this and vote in favour of my party, because I believe we have come up with policies of real substance, policies that have already given us good results and which are proposing even better results for the future.

I must emphasise my position on this coalition issue.

First of all, 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 so this must not be taken as a criticism on my part at all.

But it can’t be that I am facing a party that has been hitting us hard for the last year 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.

What is your assessment of the MLP’s electoral proposals and campaign to date, and those of the PN? How do these differ?

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, except for the repeater class proposal.

What is worse is that the MLP is pushing this one proposal down people’s throats with lies to justify this enormous mistake. They have said De La Salle is doing it - that is not true and we have heard Brother Martin confirm that. They say the UK uses such a system - that is not true either, the UK system is exactly the same as the Maltese system.

The MLP then tried to hide away the overtime issue and we have now exposed to the whole country how the MLP pays its own workers overtime at the hour per hour rate.

The MLP leader had attempted to explain it off by saying Super One had at the time been in a financial situation. That is not true at all. He also said the measure had been accepted by the workers - that is not true either and we know the workers had not accepted it. We know there was, in fact, a vote and 28 out of 30 employees disagreed with the measure, after which the management told them they would start redundancies. At that point the Super One workers had to give in.

This is what should really worry people. If the Labour Party deals with its own workers in this way, there is a clear benchmark of how it would treat all Maltese workers.

Then there was the reopening of the EU package proposal and all the other ridiculous things related to that, which have created uncertainties.

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, e-learning, increasing the ratio of computers per student to one computer for every four students, which we have already started rolling out.

This is what should have been the beauty of this electoral campaign.

This is what we are proposing in education, what is the MLP proposing in education? Zilch, except for our children to lose one whole year.

We are forwarding concrete proposals for jobs, an economic package with a reduction in income tax, incentives for women to work and for small and medium enterprises.

What in heaven’s name is Labour proposing? Does anyone have any idea? I simply don’t.

We are now eight 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 what this country needs?

8 March is going to be a very important date, and we are telling people to be very careful because their votes will really make a big difference.

We are inviting people to look at what we are proposing for young people, married couples, property purchases, jobs, factories, pensioners, health, the environment, MEPA - the whole range of what constitutes our quality of life.

Have you heard anything of this sort from the other side?

How confident are you at the moment of a victory at the polls?

I am never confident. Every single day is precious, every single vote counts. We do not give any weight at all to any surveys - the only survey that counts is the vote that will be taken on 8 March.

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.

Both parties have their staunch support bases, but what do you see as this election’s X factor – floating or undecided voters, new voters…hunters?

As always, undecided voters will make the difference. The new voters form a good chunk of the undecided voters and these are going to make a difference as well.

Yes, there is also the hunting issue and I am very worried about it. It would be a pity if the future economic stability of this country, which is to make all the difference in our lives, would be decided on this one issue alone.

But I cannot foresee. All I can do is put my arguments forward, appeal to reason, wait for the result and bow my head and respect that result. There is nothing more I can do.

You have promised a full reform of Mepa, to be taken under your wing, within 24 hours of the appointment of a new Cabinet. What are the main problems at MEPA and how deep is the rot? We just had the mass resignation of the DCC board…

I recognise that Mepa has made an enormous, positive difference to this country by addressing an area that was unregulated and open to abuse and corruption. While a lot of that has been addressed, everyone recognises the system is not yet up to scratch within the context of the challenges of today and tomorrow.

The fact that we are such a small country with such a high population and the highest car densities on the roads creates enormous pressures on the environment.

Pressures not only in terms of development, but also in terms of how to deal with waste, how to take care of the beautiful blue seas around us, the quality of our air, the agricultural landscape, and limit noise and light pollution. There are so many difficult questions.

I must admit that sitting in the Mepa seat means sitting in a very, very hot seat – and I would not ask anyone to sit in that seat except for myself.

We need to increase and improve efficiencies and transparency. We need to put people’s minds at rest that they are being treated equally and with consistency across the board, and we need to ensure Mepa has and uses the tools required to be a very strong enforcement agency.

The auditor has a very important role that we must all respect. I might not agree with his conclusions, but he is the auditor and his voice and comments need to be heard, and heard carefully.

With respect to this particular report and the resignations of the DCC board, my position has been very clear. I will accept the recommendations made by the auditor, particularly his recommendations on changes that need to be made to the law in order to avoid a repeat situation.

So immediately in the next legislature we will take up those proposals and move forward legislative changes to the MEPA law to be able to do what the auditor has proposed.

Corruption has been one of the battle cries of the MLP campaign and ministers such as Jesmond Mugliett, George Pullicino and Tonio Fenech have been under attack. What are your comments?

The big difference between the two parties – and again judge us by what we do and not what we say – is that I have referred every single allegation of corruption to the commissioner of police.

Alfred Sant, meanwhile, has been playing dirty politics – and he is still doing it now. It is irresponsible for him to have spoken the way he did yesterday and hint that he knows something about some case of corruption at Mepa.

Why does he keep playing strip tease on the corruption issue the way he does?

I would have thought anyone who knows anything about any instance of corruption would have gone today, not tomorrow or next week, to the police commissioner. Why doesn’t he do exactly as I did, and go to straight the commissioner of police?

My belief has always been that if we have a Constitution that entrusts the responsibility of the investigation of criminal acts to the commissioner of police, who has all the tools to investigate, why not refer these allegations to him?

I have done that in every single case, and I have results. People have been identified, taken to court, found guilty and condemned. There have also been cases of total frame ups and lies - and those responsible were also taken to court and were found guilty because the allegations were totally unfounded.

And then we have the hypocrites of the Labour Party. We had taken action against someone who was alleged to have engaged in a corrupt act, we asked the person to resign from his position at a ministry’s secretariat and his brother criticises me for having taken action against corruption. He then goes to the Labour Party and finds them welcoming him with open arms.

Again, this could only happen with the Malta Labour Party, and would never have happened with any political party with any substance or ethical rectitude.

Could you provide concrete examples of instances when such allegations were forwarded for investigation?

The Malta Transport Authority report, the Malta Maritime Authority report, the Mater Dei IT system report, the Mater Dei equipment tender – all of these were referred to the commissioner of police.

I have alerted the commissioner to be on the lookout for any allegations, I don’t care who they are against - they could be against me, and I have given him a carte blanche to investigate and take full action and have the protection of myself as prime minister.

For the sake of this country, we need to do everything possible to eliminate even the slightest hint of corruption. But then we need to also have serious politicians who, if they have made a mistake say ‘sorry I have made a mistake, the allegation was unfounded’.

Unfortunately for us we have a leader of the opposition who does not know how to do things properly, ethically or in the correct way. What he is doing is undermining the system and he should be held accountable for all of this.

I feel the people out there are fed up of the mudslinging and insinuations. I think the people are concerned about their future, their children, their children’s future jobs, the environment, our international and European reputation, and the quality of their lives.

People also want to be serene, to be left alone to live their lives. I have heard this from people out there: ‘please do your job, we are happy the country is moving forward, just leave us alone and not reduce politics to this comedy of errors as the MLP has been doing in the last weeks.

Interview carried out on the morning of Friday, 29 February.