It is clear that the Labour government is scared to do the right thing when it comes to governance, Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech said during an interview party media on Sunday.

“It is doing totally the wrong thing,” he remarked. The Nationalist Party leader said that the government’s economic model has failed in aspects such as the environment, the people’s quality of life, security, infrastructure, and maintaining people’s ability to live a serene life. He continued that the government does not want to leave this model and address the problems it presents.

Prime Minister Abela cannot provide the solutions that the people need, Grech said, adding that if people feel suffocated in Malta with the number of cars constantly increasing and constant traffic jams in tandem with the failures of the health industry with medicine being out of stock, then the longer the current government stays the more these problems will grow.

Grech said that the PN is constantly speaking with social partners in order to improve the party’s vision for economic excellence. He continued that it is clear that there is a need for change, and that all the social partners agree that the country’s economic model needs to be changed. “Not everyone agrees on how it needs to change,” he said, “but everyone agrees that change must happen.”

He referred to the issue in terms of environmental administration and spoke about rural and urban environments. He said that a balance needs to be established between the needs for development and people’s quality of life. “We have a responsibility as a people, and the government has a responsibility for good governance.”

“We have a government that does not properly invest in infrastructure but then insists on increasing the population,” the Opposition leader said.

Continuing on the topic of infrastructure, he recalled this past summer, which saw the country deal with rampant power outages “which left families with a week of no electricity”. Grech said that this happened because of a lack of investment despite the excuses offered by the government. He said that the government is lost in making sure that it stays in power and “making sure that it keeps making millions”, and so it has forgotten to take care of the needs of the people.

Speaking on the topic of the rising cost of living, he said that the causes must be addressed directly and that dealing with the issue at its surface is not sufficient. He added that the social partners agree that the Cost of Living Adjustment should not be taxed.

Grech remarked that the government is attacking the country’s courts and magistrates because the government has no control over them and that similar attacks on the Standards Commissioner are a result of decisions not going in the government’s favour. “Everyone who does not agree with it, the government wants to break,” he said.

The PN leader concluded by speaking about the government’s proposed drug reform. He said that the government should not be attempting to help traffickers and that priority should instead be given to preventing trafficking altogether. He continued that in the eyes of the government, someone carrying 500 tablets could potentially sell one tablet each to 500 people and not be considered a trafficker.