In a letter to Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia, Health Minister Chris Fearne called the Nationalist Party’s request to call an “urgent” parliamentary sitting to discuss the ongoing power cuts as simply a “partisan move.”

So far Malta has succumbed to five nights of power cuts all over the island, with some households waiting upwards of 30 hours until the power came back on.

PN Leader Bernard Grech addressed the nation on NetTV on Friday and said that he is calling this plenary session as people deserve the know the truth.

In response to this, Fearne sent a letter on the same day explaining to Farrugia the situation at hand and what the government plans to do about it.

In the letter he wrote, he said that the government is currently giving absolute priority to energy supply. He added that not only is the government working hard to give the nation updates on the situation but is also working hard to address existing issues and reinforce the distribution system, which work on started a year and a half ago.

“We understand the inconvenience that many people have gone through, and currently, the priority is that these people are helped and given the supply as soon as possible. Moreover, the government has already announced that compensation will be given to those affected.”

Fearne added that the government offered energy subsidies to remove this burden which would have cost taxpayers over €400 million in total last year, whilst also changing the electricity billing system that the PN had introduced.

“We are doing all this to strengthen an electricity system that a Nationalist government had left completely abandoned.”

In response to the ongoing power cuts, the PN has slammed the government for its economic model which is based on imported cheap labour and increasing the population, in a country that does not have the infrastructure to handle the load.