Prime Minister Robert Abela criticised the Nationalist Party on how it takes its positions, saying that they only make statements based on what is controversial on social media rather than based on any “homework.”

Speaking on party media on Sunday, Abela labelled the PN’s politics as one of “opportunism and populism”, saying that they were only taking decisions on the basis of whatever people are angry about on social media on any given day and without doing any homework on the topic.

As a result of that lack of homework, the Prime Minister and Labour leader said, the party and its leader Bernard Grech end up contradicting themselves some days – or even hours – later.

“Today we have an Opposition which is seeing whatever controversy there is on social media and uploading things about that controversy on their own social media profiles without doing any homework on the subject,” Abela said.

“We’ve seen it with every project that there’s been a protest against,” Abela said – ostensibly a reference to the recently proposed yacht marina in Marsascala bay, a proposal which the PN, after some initial confusion in its message, eventually came out against.

Abela was asked about the Opposition’s environmental credentials after PN leader Bernard Grech said that the party would not repeal the controversial 2006 local plan changes, which saw tracts of previously outside development zone land changed to allow development – something which Grech stopped short of saying was a mistake.

“I wasn’t surprised [that Grech said that the decision wasn’t wrong],” Abela said.

“I wasn’t surprised because one of the architects of the 2006 local plan changes and the [equally controversial] rationalisation process is the same person who Grech has trusted with the party’s environmental policy,” he added.

He said that he did not expect Grech to say that he would repeal the 2006 decision because there are now a number of legal issues in doing so, but questioned why Grech did not say that the decision – which he said made the equivalent of the whole of Siggiewi developable land – was wrong.

“We can probably write a book about what happened in 2006,” he said cryptically.

Abela said that the PN had frequently belied a sense of “superiority” in failing to admit that it had been wrong in the past.  The environment, he said, is one such example, as are topics such as divorce, IVF, and civil rights.

“That’s down to credibility.  With us you know where you are,” he said.  “It’s easy to be populist and opportunist, but when you’re in the position you want to be in, being populist or opportunist doesn’t work when it comes to taking the right decisions for the country,” he added.

Abela spent the bulk of his interview discussing various economic schemes which the government has introduced throughout its tenure, with special focus on the housing sector.

He referred to the New Hope scheme announced earlier this week, which sees the government act as home loan guarantors for people who have suffered from life threatening illnesses and are hence ineligible for life insurance.

He said that a host of other schemes have helped the number of families who own their homes increase by 33,000 since 2013.

Abela also referred to the manufacturing industry, saying that while pre-2013 ministers made bets on when it would collapse, the Labour government had managed to arrest a slide in employment levels which had been ongoing since 2004 in the sector.

He also announced a Labour Party General Conference to take place between 17 and 20 September which will “mark how this moment will continue to regenerate our country.”