As Prime Minister Joseph Muscat continues to try and weather the gales and storms that engulf his party due to his top minister’s involvement in Panama, the weather on another front is looking quite incredibly bright.
Hot on the heels of a massive 6.3% economic growth in real terms for 2015, the Central Bank of Malta has just predicted and increase of 5% and 4.2% for 2016 and 2017.
This is all positive news, especially the news that the deficit 1.6% of GDP – well within the EU’s established threshold, and government debt has also decreased to around 63% of GDP which is getting closer to the Growth and Stability Pact requisite of 60%.
The Prime Minister lauded Malta’s economic miracle during last week’s General Conference, but yet he has faced dissent over the handling of the PanamaPapers political storm.
On Monday, former PL leader and Prime Minister and current head of delegation in the European Parliament Alfred Sant said that Konrad Mizzi should have resigned over his interests in Panama.
Yesterday, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo joined the call for his resignation, saying that he would never have opened up an sort of business interest in Panama and that Dr Mizzi should heed Dr Sant’s advice to resign.
Mr Bartolo said that it was not an issue of legality, but rather one of morality. Mr Bartolo said ordinary people paid taxes and were right to question why some were seeking to do otherwise.
“The small person who works, and even those with more wealth, we expect them to pay taxes, and they rightly turn to us and say: “excuse me, but the Romans had a proverb, there are laws for gods and laws for animals, are we animals?” he said.
And this is what it is all about. A good part of the reason why Malta’s economy is so successful is because people in this country know the value of hard work. Most people work themselves to the bone to provide a better life for their families, and most pay a lot of money into the taxation system.
Opening a company in Panama may not be illegal, but it is an outright slap in the face to all those hardworking and law abiding people who domicile their money here.
The PM is preaching that the PL is now united and awaiting the outcome of the audit initiated by Dr Mizzi... not that it will turn up anything, given the opacity of the financial system in Panama.
But the party is not at all united. Mr Bartolo has, in no uncertain terms, said exactly what he thinks... that Dr Mizzi must go. Mr Bartolo has also made another thing clear, in that he thinks that Dr Mizzi has come up short by shirking political responsibility and dumping it on the Prime Minister. He said that Dr Mizzi should have had the moral fibre to tender his resignation. There are various rumours swirling about that Mr Bartolo is not the only person within the Cabinet that feels this way. It would serve the country better if these persons mustered the courage to say what Dr Sant and Mr Bartolo have said. This is not about a witch-hunt, it is about social justice.