The government should compensate consumers who suffered frequent power cuts as a result of the government’s irresponsibility, Nationalist Party spokesman Ryan Callus said.

Addressing the media, Callus said that the Labour government had won the 2013 election with a pledge to regenerate the energy sector. “They promised us a dream and instead they gave us a nightmare,” Callus said. Eight years after making that promise, we are now living in the dark and without respite from the heat.

Some of the blackouts are lasting more than 12 hours, he said.

Last February, the PN had presented a list of proposals for energy. These included an investment in the distribution of electricity which would ensure that the supply meets the needs. That time, the Labour government had ignored the PN’s proposals.

He recalled that for the Electrogas power station to be installed, companies had been opened in Panama by former minister Konrad Mizzi and former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, Callus said. Added to this, Malta had pledged to buy electricity as higher rates, pledged to buy gas also at expensive rates and, most of all, a journalist had been killed.

Callus said that Enemalta workers were suffering long hours of work to repair damages, while consumers including the elderly, the sick, newborns and children were living in the dark and in the heat. The least the government can do is give them compensation, Callus said.