We are living in extraordinary times and we would have expected extraordinary measures from tonight’s budget, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said in his reaction to the budget.

“These were recycled measures we have heard over the years,” he said, adding that the budget measures are short-term fixes but do not look at long-term effects of the pandemic.

Abela is more concerned about the election than saving the Maltese economy, he said.  

“This is an X-ray of a tired and visionless government. This is reflected in the government’s admission, in the budget speech, that it still has to draft the short-term strategy and economic vision for the coming ten years.”

Not enough being done to invest in digital economy, talent and good governance, Grech said. “Since the government is failing to do this, we will do it ourselves in the coming months with concrete plans.”

The government should have told us how operations will stop being cancelled, he continued. “The government should have presented concrete proposals on how to flatten the curve. It should have reassured workers employed in the hardest hit economic sectors.”

Grech said that the €120 million in direct investment in the economy and €50 million that will be issued in vouchers is too weak an investment in the economy. There was also no reduction in fuel and energy prices, because the government is bound by a contract with Electrogas.  

“The government did nothing to thank our front liners. It forgot them. It also forgot our teachers.”

Abela should have reassured business owners by telling them he has a strategy to see that Christmastime business is not lost to the pandemic, he continued.

“This is a budget that does not look at tomorrow. This is an incompetent government that failed and buckled under the first waves. Our country needs direction. It needs hope that can only be given to it by the Nationalist Party.”