A Nationalist government would control Malta’s rising population, Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech said in a political interview on Sunday.

Grech said that the time has come for the PN to be clearer on “where we want to take the country,” adding that his politics is mostly focused on how people can have a better life.

He said it is a “waste of time” to get lost in the government’s shortcomings as everybody knows and feels what they are.

Grech said that the PN is seeking an “economic vision of excellence” built on the feedback from the people and from social partners. “We are humble enough to listen and to govern this country in a coalition with everyone,” he said.

He said that Robert Abela “doesn’t want to facilitate this change, because he depends on today’s economy and on getting 20, 30 or 40,000 people from outside the EU to support it.” 

Grech lamented that you cannot go anywhere nowadays without being served by a foreigner and said that the PN’s economy would not depend on thousands of people in cheap labour jobs, but on high value industries.

He said that integrity is an important component of this, and said that Robert Abela did not follow the country’s best interests, as proven by the Steward judgement.

Speaking about a recent survey wherein 80% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) said that the country is moving in the wrong direction, he said that these are the people in contact with the grassroots of society and who are seeing their cashflow decreasing, expenses increasing, and the government refusing to protect them.

Instead, he said, the government through Robert Abela, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana and MEP Alex Agius Saliba amongst others, continue to support the same economic principles and then also attack businesses.

“If you are attacking businesses, you are in a panic and have lost all form of initiative to do good and lead the country in the right direction,” Grech said.

He said that the people agree with the PN in the sense that the country’s population cannot continue to grow.

Grech said that a PN government would “control our population” and invest in new economic niches which will offer better conditions to workers.

He reiterated a previous proposal to set up a fund which will aid importers face rising import costs and also reiterated a proposal for the COLA given to people each year to not be taxed and to aid the employer to pay it.

Calling on people to attend Sunday’s protest, the PN leader said that a variety of institutions – ranging from the Police Commissioner, Attorney General, Standards Commissioner, Public Broadcasting Service, and Broadcasting Authority – are not doing their duty.

He said that the country only has the people left to defend it and called on everyone to attend the national protest in Castille Square later in the day.