The business community should understand that enforcement and regulation is not a “witch-hunt” against them, Prime Minister Robert Abela said Friday.

“Everyone must work within the parameters of the law,” he said when interviewed by former PBS head of news Reno Bugeja in Birzebbuga.

Asked about restaurants and establishments using public space for placing tables and chairs, Abela said “there is a section of the law which allows for the shop to be closed” if regulations continue to be breached.

With regard to protest by food couriers regarding their wages, Abela said that one cannot have workers paid wages which are not humane.

“JobsPlus is analysing the labour market, and those workers who do not give value added to the country, for the pressure on the exert country’s infrastructure, no longer have a place here,” Abela said.

Abela said the economic model must be taken in a wider context, comparing it to what it was ten years ago.

“You had massive unemployment, you had mediocre economic growth. Then the situation improved greatly, and the Maltese started taking the jobs and opportunities presented to them. Foreign workers came in when the opportunities continued to increase,” he stated. “There are solutions, and we are able to seek the solutions the country needs.”

With regard to the result of the June European Parliament and local council elections, Abela said the party might not have appealed for the middle-ground voters as much as it needed to.

Abela said the deputy leadership race for party affairs will be completed by mid-September. Deputy leader Daniel Micallef had announced his resignation from the party following the last MEP election.