The European Greens have said that Malta is the benchmark for the whole of the EU when it comes to the Whistle-blower's Act, PL MEP candidate Cyrus Engerer said.
On this week’s Indepth, PL MEP candidate Cyrus Engerer and PN MEP candidate Frank Psaila went head-to-head in a debate on a variety of issues in the run-up to the European Parliament and local council elections on 25 May.
Engerer noted that even though only six years have passed the government will keep making changes, but maintained that they had found a negative Opposition through Simon Busuttil, that was blocking the reform process for the Constitution.
“From the first day of the new government in 2013, the Prime Minister started the process to have this Constitutional reform that was promised in the electoral manifesto, but the Nationalist Party refused to nominate anyone to be part of this Constitutional Reform that will see the birth of our Second Republic.”
These are the facts of what has happened, year after year, month after month, along these last six years, Engerer insisted.
“If we had an Opposition that acted the same way the Labour Party did in Opposition, then things would have moved forward.
“But we had a negative Opposition, an Opposition that did not want to participate in the process of strengthening of the democracy of our country, but we still made changes.”
With regards to development on the island, Psaila maintained that “we do not have a long-term plan as to the type, amount and location of development is needed in our country”.
“What happened to this master plan? We didn't hear anything else about it.”
Responding to accusation of negativity, he noted that the Nationalist Party is getting into issues that it believes are pertinent for the people.
“Mistakes have happened in the past, and we admit it, but it’s useless for us to keep looking back and crying over spilt milk.”
“The Nationalist Party will have its position on the Fuel Station policy, but at this stage it is a valid argument to ask for an element of long-term consistency and planning.”
***
Earlier story
PN MEP candidate Frank Psaila said that while Malta does not see the physical violence that was present in the 80s anymore, government workers from both sides of the aisle are facing psychological violence.
This week on Indepth, PN MEP candidate Frank Psaila and PL MEP candidate Cyrus Engerer went head to-head in a debate on a variety of issues in the run up to the European Union and local council elections on the 25th of May.
The Malta Independent's News Editor Neil Camilleri mediated the debate for this week's show.
Psaila insisted that after speaking with both nationalist and labour supporters who work within various government departments, he noted how the former fear punishment if they had to 'reveal' themselves as being nationalists, whilst the latter that are not part of the 'klikka' feel very much the same when it comes to criticizing labour.
"That is the psychological damage done today, and what do you expect? The Nationalist Party to stay quiet on these issues?"
"The Nationalist Party tackles these issues head-first, and not because the Nationalist Party didn't make mistakes when it was in government, but because the Nationalist Party wants to be the defender of the people."
Touching on the work done by current Nationalist MEPs David Casa and Roberta Metsola, Engerer insisted that they were damaging the country, having seen them doing so, he said, with his own eyes.
"I used to be in every plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg; I used to be in the corridors of the European Parliament in Brussels; and I saw with my own eyes what Casa and Metsola did."
He described how what they did was not simply criticising the country [Malta]; not simply a criticism of how the Government is functioning, but that they had a planned to undermine the country.
Asked what they did exactly, Engerer quipped how the first politician he knew of that had not enjoyed being in front of a camera was David Casa, describing how when he took a photo of Casa giving out fliers that put Malta in a bad light, the PN MEP complained about the fact that Engerer was taking photos of him.