Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said Sunday that Prime Minister Robert Abela tried leading the Labour party in a way that ensures he would continue "ruling," yet has divided his own party through his leadership.
Grech spoke during a phone interview on NET, where he said that Labour is a divided party, with a leader who is isolated, and undergoing internal conflict and playing "musical chairs" with public roles to continue pleasing the people who have resigned or withdrawn from the party.
The resignation of former Labour CEO Randolph Debattista was one of these "musical chairs" as Abela appointed him as Malta's ambassador to Geneva, he said.
Grech said that in order for Abela to keep his place, he tried "playing everyone", including former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and former Deputy PM Chris Fearne.
He continued that Abela paid Jason Micallef to withdraw his name for PL Deputy Leadership, with Maltese and Gozitan taxpayer money. Grech said that Ministers are also stopping Abela, which has made him unfocused on the people's and country's needs.
"These effects are being felt by the people and the country, where they are not receiving essential services, as Abela is failing, and government is being led by a Prime Minister who is weak and divided," Grech said.
Grech also addressed the identity cards scandal, which implicates that thousands of non-Maltese residents illegally obtained Maltese ID cards.
In this respect, Grech said that the responsible Minister, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri has remained silent and absent in the face of serious allegations, and has failed to even make a declaration or release a statement on how he is tackling the situation to assure people that there is no fraud on identity cards.
"We cannot have faith in Camilleri to lead such a sensitive and important dicastery. He must assume responsibility for his and his Ministry's continuous failure, as well as on the problems in the Police Force, and issues in prison," Grech said.
He said that Labour failed the country through its large internal problems, as well as in terms of infrastructure, drainage, electricity, the health system, and now, another pillar, the security of the Maltese and Gozitan public.
"Labour has become a weight for the country, for the public," Grech said.
Grech said that an alternative PN government would prioritise a number of things in the first 100 days in government, which include ordering assessments on all the country's infrastructural systems to ensure all the needed investment is made without wasting time and money. He continued that a national conference would be held in the first 100 days to understand where the country needs to move towards, implement all solutions the PN suggested to government in the past two years to overcome the higher cost of living, and pass a law to make the environment a fundamental right in the constitution. Grech said that the PN would also pass a set of bills through which it would implement the recommendations of the public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, and measures to recoup the €400 million stolen through the Vitals hospitals deal.