Opposition Leader Bernard Grech insisted on Saturday that party media should not take advantage on certain situations when reporting, as it does not matter who the person or what their occupation is.

Speaking during a radio interview on 103 Malta’s Heart with host Andrew Azzopardi, reference was made to the recent report involving the younger son of European Commissioner Helena Dalli, who was jailed three months after he was found guilty of trafficking ecstasy in 2013.

Azzopardi asked whether Grech condemns the fact that the court left a man hanging for all this time.  

In reply, Grech remarked that it is unacceptable, saying the young man has changed and started a business – something which the courts do not take into account.

“These situations occur when we have a government who in the last seven years has not addressed the problem in court,” he said.

Grech admitted that in March of 2004, he was involved in a traffic accident, hitting an 18-year old woman with his car.

“At the time I was not involved in any politics. I was a nobody to the public. Yet despite this, a newspaper aligned with a political party published an article in which it described me as a lawyer. This is wrong because the fact that I was a lawyer added nothing to the story.”

The PN media did not mention the fact that 26-year-old Jean-Marc Dalli was Helena Dalli’s son.

Grech insisted that party media should not take advantage of such situations as it doesn’t matter who the person or what his/her occupation is. He said he had instructed the party not to capitalise on the situation.

Speaking about the new theme for the party – ‘Paġna Ġdida’ – that was recently launched as Grech marked his 100th day in the PN leadership, he remarked that the theme is reflecting a new page for the party after much work of strengthening and renewing its internal structures.

“The Nationalist party itself is turning a new page but it is also offering the public the opportunity to do so aswell, and create a new page for Malta, with the hope of a better future,” Grech said.

Despite turning a new page, Grech clarified that he is not saying that everything in this country, including the Nationalist party is bad. However, it only means that certain changes had to be made and still need to be made in order to improve.

With regard to the country’s economy, he highlighted that although the economy of the country has progressed, the economy of certain people has also improved greatly, but it has not progressed for everyone.

“Today, we are faced with situations which need to be addressed as the percentage of people who are at risk of poverty in this country continues to grow.”  

He added that the the government is not addressing these situations but is completely ignoring them instead. “This is not right as the government has a social obligation to address such matters.”

Speaking about the collapse of buildings in Malta, particularly referring to the tragedy that claimed the life of the mother of two when her Ħamrun home collapsed into a construction site next door on 2 March last year, Grech stated that the abuse occuring within the construction industry needs to be addressed and stopped.

The government had a report on what happened and what needs to be done since April, but the document was only published last week. “Although the report came out, the government should now see to it that it is implemented.”

Grech highlighted that the problem with construction development in Malta is not the development per se, but the abuse that occurs.

“Although there are many developers who abide by the rules, like everywhere else, there are those who abuse and cause harm to those surrounding the development. When one continuously ignores such a situation, things will only grow.” Grech said.

Speaking about the issue of bird hunting and how Grech recently described hunters and trappers as “nature lovers... nature lovers with a gun”, Azzopardi questioned how one can look at bird hunting as a hobby.

In reply, Grech defended hunters by addressing the negative perception of hunters and trappers in the Maltese islands.

He said that “as as a person who is not into hunting, I cannot simply decide that the bird is more important than the human, solely because I don’t understand its point as a hobby. This does not mean that the hunter can abuse of the situations.”

“We are against the abuse of poaching, but one must understand that this particular hobby is very important to the hunter,” he said.

In addition, moving on to speaking about the situation in Malta’s prison and how photo of a notice signed by director general, Colonel Alexander Dalli that says the role of prison is “to teach fear” was published, Azzopardi asked whether Dalli would remain director if Grech were to become Prime Minister.

Point blank, Grech replied with a solid no, saying that this act was blatant abuse on man and an attack on the whole system that caused nothing but harm.

With regards to the Cornonavirus pandemic, Grech reiterated multiple times by saying that the government needed to be more honest with the public during this time. In addition, when the time came that we almost eredicated the virus from this country, the government opened the airport to early.

Grech appealed that during this time, one should listen more to what Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci has to say.

Speaking about recreational cannabis, Grech remarked that as a party “we are not closing our doors on this aspect but we must be careful how we deal with this discourse so as not to send the wrong message to our young people. it is also important that we listen to experts and professionals on this matter and take it all into consideration.”

With regard to the traffic situation in Malta, the Nationalist party believes that the government continues to depart from the same premise – to keep everything as it is, and to continue widening the streets, but this can be tackled in different ways.