The second Cabinet reshuffle which happened just 10 months after his first reshuffle back in January shows that Prime Minister Robert Abela and his government are incompetent, Opposition and Nationalist Party Leader Bernard Grech said on Sunday. 

During a Nationalist Party political gathering, held at Dar Centrali, Grech mentioned the recent death of the great writer Oliver Friggieri who will, with no doubt, live on through his work. 

Grech thanked Friggieri for helping many people not only on an academic level, not only for instilling a great love towards the Maltese language, not only for helping others to appreciate all that this country has to offer, but for instilling a civic sense, honour as well as determination and make everyone aware that we carry great duties on our shoulders. 

He moved on to congratulating Deputy Minister and Health Minister Chris Fearne for being elected to a presitgious international health group. 

Grech spoke about the recent Cabinet reshuffle in which four new ministers were appointed and three others had their ministries changed. 

He remarked that ‘after only ten months, this country has a Prime Minister who is showing us that he is incompetent. Ten months ago, PM Robert Abela boasted that he has the biggest cabinet in history but now acknowledges that he was wrong and what he did was a failure.’ 

This goes to show, amongst other things, that the Prime Minister is solely interested in his party, in himself and in obtaining votes, Grech added. 

With regards to former Finance Minister Edward Scicluna who will take up the post as Governer of the Central Bank instead, Grech remarked that this is what PM Abela wanted as it favours himself and puts him at an advantage in many ways.

Although Grech congratuled Clyde Caruana as he will be replacing Edward Scicluna as Finance Minister, he questioned: ‘how can you trust an inexperienced person, like Clyde Caruana, to handle the finance position during a pandemic in our country?’ 

Moving on to Silvio Parnis, despite the Nationalist Party’s constant push towards removing him, Grech said that ‘Robert Abela has finally realised that Parnis has failed and should be removed, however, the damage that was caused remains.’ 

In addition, PM Abela has also failed in handling the tourism as well as the education sector. Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli and Minister Owen Bonnici were incapable of handling certain situations and did not make the right decisions, he said. 

‘We’ve seen Bonnici fail as Minister of Justice, he has also failed as Minister of Education, now he has been entrusted with a role which entails taking care of what will happen after Covid-19.’ 

Grech questioned Bonnici: ‘don’t you feel that after you have failed twice, you will be incapable of carrying this kind of weight on your shoulders, and manage to successfully handle the great challenges that lie ahead?’ 

He then directly addressed Justyne Caruana who will be replacing Bonnici as Education Minister. Despite the decisions that were taken ten months ago to remove her from Cabinet, which now seem to have changed as she enters once again, Grech congratulated her and hoped that she will do a better job than Bonnici. 

He added that ‘in this insensitive moment, the Prime Minister needs to open his eyes and realise that the country is not revolved around him, his interests and those around him.’ 

PM Abela needs to really start listening to what people have to say and understand what people are feeling as he is a Prime Minister who has failed to govern, Grech said.

Addressing the youths of Malta, which is a central priority to the Nationalist Party, Grech mentioned that if the party were to be in government, it would develop a new Ministry revolved around youths. This would also apply to the sport sector as it is just as important. 

Grech added that ‘the incompetence of this government is so clear that we have reached a point where the same government, every few days, changes its direction. This country, today now than ever, needs a party where it knows where it wants to go.’ 

It was announced that Darren Carabott, a local councillor, will be contesting in the next general election on the 1st electoral district. This includes Valletta, Floriana, Ħamrun, Marsa, tal-Pietà, Gwardamanġa and Santa Venera.