When the Labour Party was in Opposition more than 11 years ago, it used to attack the Nationalist government of not taking care of the country’s finances. The PL used to berate the PN government of spending too much, of allowing the country’s debt to accumulate, and to say that the future generations will have to pay for the government’s negligence.

The country’s debt in March 2013, when the Nationalist Party ceded the reins of the administration to the then newly-elected government of Joseph Muscat, was less than €5 billion. It was, to be precise, €4.976 billion, according to the statistics issued by the NSO.

By March 2020, the time when the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in Malta, the country’s debt had risen slightly. In that month, the NSO numbers show that Malta’s debt was €5.5 billion.

Today, according to the latest numbers issued by the NSO, for May 2024, the government’s debt has climbed to €10.017 billion. Therefore, Malta’s debt has, for the first time, exceeded the €10 billion mark.

It is not a record that the Labour government should be proud of. And if, before 2013, the Labour Party was worried about what future generations would have had to pay, what does is think now, given that what is due is more than double what was due in 2013?

And while it is understandable that, because of the Covid pandemic the government had to dig deep and come up with measures to sustain the economy, now that the pandemic is behind us there should be more control on the country’s finances.

The measures that the government took during the rough Covid years are no longer in place, except for the energy and fuel subsidies which the government has continued to sustain in spite of repeated warnings from the European Commission to phase them out gradually.

But it is not only the energy subsidies that are leading to a higher debt.

Between May 2023 and May 2024 the country’s debt rose by roughly €1 billion (and this time there is no pandemic to blame).

Let us remember that the government spends about €1 million a day on the energy and fuel subsidies. €1 million a day is €365 million a year – which is much less than the €1 billion difference between the debt registered in May 2023 and May 2024, and therefore one cannot “blame” solely the subsidies for the accumulating debt. The rest of the debt is being accumulated somewhere else.

The Nationalist Party says that the country is registering deficit after deficit because the government subsidises corruption. This includes an over-inflated public service where unnecessary jobs are being created, and the operations of commissions, authorities and agencies where public money is spent lavishly.

With Robert Abela at the helm of the government, the country’s debt has risen sharply. His government should see where it has gone wrong in its financial administration, and take the necessary measures to change direction. Sooner or later, Malta will have to face the consequences of its doings.