The damage has already been done and someone has to shoulder political responsibility for this, PN leader Simon Busuttil said during a dialogue session held at the Nadur PN club in Gozo this morning, referring to the bad international press the citizenship scheme attracted.
“We are trying to seek a consensus on the issue but it is rather too late since the damage is now irreparable,” Dr Busuttil reiterated.
“The removal of the secrecy clause is simply not enough,” Dr Busuttil said.
He said that the government tarnished the repute of the country and Malta had become the laughing stock.
“From the very beginning we were against the scheme on principle; we appealed for a consensus to waive the secrecy clause and suggested the schemed is tied to some form of investment, yet the government steamrolled over everyone and approved the scheme just the same,” the PN leader lamented.
He said that the government placed the all the blame on the Opposition for the bad press.
“Instead of admitting fault it conveniently put the blame on us,” Dr Busuttil said.
On Gozo, he said that our sister island was hardly given importance in the Budget 2014.
“The government is not respecting the trust the Gozitans gave to the government, adding that Gozitans were promised the world prior to the election by the Labour Party but now that it has been elected to govern failed to implement its election pledges,” he said.
“The PN gave a lot to Gozo, it left its mark on the island,” he said, “evident from the number of projects developed during the previous legislature”.
He criticised the Gozo Minister Anton Refalo for being responsible for the biggest ‘U-Turn’ since the March general election, referring to the controversy which saw an empty Gozo ferry recalled to port to pick up passengers, including himself.
He asked what the government was doing to create a job plan for Gozitans.
Former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono said that the government was ignoring Gozitans.
PN Secretary-General Chris Said meanwhile highlighted that once can already write two volumes on the government’s shortcomings since the March election, adding that if this went on, we could write an encyclopedia.
He announced a PN committee in each locality would be set up in Gozo.
Dr Said said that this proposal formed part of PN MP Francis Zammit Dimech's report to be issued in March.
Dr Zammit Dimech has been entrusted to conduct an x-ray of Maltese society with the aim of exploring today's needs after a committee was set up headed by him following the party's colossal defeat in the March election.
PL says it hopes ‘PN’s extremist faction will not reign’
Families and businesses are starting to realise the difference in attitude between Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Simon Busuttil, even when it comes to the citizenship scheme, the Labour Party said in a statement issued yesterday.
“While Dr Muscat was prudent by saying that he hoped the discussions between the government and the Opposition would turn out to be successful, the Leader of the Opposition tried to instigate PN officials such as MEP David Casa, who in turn urged Simon Busuttil to stand up to the prime minister.
Dr Busuttil has to shoulder responsibility for attacking the country publically on international TV stations, the PL said.
The PL added that it hoped that the PN’s extreme faction won’t keep taking over, as is the case on other issues.
It said that a clear example is that PN MP Claudio Grech attended the news conference held on Saturday but its media boycotted the event by not mentioning it in its Sunday paper.