The budget for the year 2022 was designed with the people, for the people, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Sunday during a brief phone interview on ONE Radio.

Abela was asked about the budget set to be presented on Monday evening. He described it as "a realistic budget from a united government."

He said that the government held meetings with various social partners and organisations from different sectors, and even held public consultation sessions in squares around the country. "It is one of the budgets that saw the most consultation," he said.

On Saturday, a meeting of Cabinet and the PL Parliamentary Group was convened, he said. The meeting was "positive, and saw great contributions made, seeing this united team agree to continue creating policies to improve people's lives."

"The beauty about being in politics is to work to make a difference in the quality of life of youths, the elderly, families, and the aims should be the benefits we want to create for today and for future generations. Discussions must always be focused on ideas and the future."

Such levels of discussion can only take place if there is harmony and unity, he said. Taking aim at the Nationalist Party, he said that the PN does not have such harmony at any level. "The people cannot risk trusting their future to those who are not even able to unite the team they want to work with."

The Prime Minister spoke about wanting to strengthen and improve the country in every sense - economically, socially and environmentally.

He said that Covid-19 had an impact on the country. He said that the government managed to not only control the situation, but stop the worst from happening. Abela spoke about reducing poverty and unemployment.

"The progressive policies of this government not only make sense, but are based on people's needs."

"Every time we introduced measures to protect the country during this year and a half of pandemic, the opposition was criticising our spending."

He said that the PN in 2008 and 2009 failed the government finances, yet today wants to speak about the deficit. "They told us it is not right to go into deficit after so many years of good management of public finances." This, he said, shows the PN's inconsistencies. "They have, since 2013, been questioning where the surplus was and criticising our handling of public finances, and now in their own pre-budget document, they are asking why we did not continue doing as we were. What credibility could they have?"

He said that since 2020, the government adjusted to the pandemic realities. "We must look at what is happening abroad. Look at energy prices, petrol and diesel prices, where such prices exploded upwards (...) We managed to control this. Financial stability is naturally important, but so is work, opportunities and the future of families. This is why we kept the country strong."

He said that today, Malta has the lowest poverty and social exclusion rate since such a statistic began being recorded.

Abela spoke about pensioners and said that this government has began giving them their dignity back, giving increases which are not only through the COLA. As an example, he mentioned that the government had removed taxes on pensions.

He said that the government will continue to improve elderly's income.

He spoke about work on social housing, and said that the waiting list for social housing is 1000 less than it was in 2012.

The Prime Minister also said that home ownership kept rising, while the government also introduced stability to the rental market. Abela said that the government wants to continue to address the gap between those who fell behind and those who raced ahead. 

He said that the government, in order to implement measures, needs a strong economy that generates jobs. "A strong economy allows the introduction of measures and their sustainability."

He spoke about putting an emphasis on health, skills and education. "We want job opportunities for everyone, so the thousands who were dependant on social benefits are not only able to fend for themselves, but create better lives for themselves."