Prime Minister Robert Abela has resorted to lies and insults as he has no reason and nothing to stand on, Nationalist Party MPs Adrian Delia and Ivan Castillo said during a press conference on Friday.
Delia remarked that the truth contradicts what Abela is saying, and referred to an instance during the Prime Minister's budget speech in Parliament where he seemed to allege that the PN's pre-budget document was leaked to the Labour Party by Delia. The PN MP said that the pre-budget is an internal document being worked on by the PN, and that Abela decided to lie in this situation.
He continued that he has invited Abela to substantiate what he said, but commented that the Prime Minister has not done so because he is unable to, due to what he said being a lie.
The PN MP also spoke of another statement that Abela had made during his budget speech, in which he remarked that budget spots which the PN had blocked from being broadcast on PBS were then broadcast on NET TV after being paid to do so.
On this matter, Delia said that some days ago the PN went to the court and requested a mandate, he continued that the government did not just prepare informational clips, but also clips with partisan content in the days before the budget. He said that the court ordered PBS to stop broadcasting political spots, "which are illegal according to the constitution".
Delia continued that it is very easy for those interested to go back and see if these spots were ever actually broadcast by the PN.
"The Prime Minister is lying consistently, and this concerns not just those who follow politics at the level of what the parties do, but concerns the Maltese and Gozitan people because when we are in a state of the country where we are filled with corruption and scandals, we now have a Leader of the Government who is consistently, instance after instance, practically every time he speaks on ample subjects, is basing his statements off of lies instead of facts," Delia said.
He concluded by saying that the PN's appeal is not to Abela or to the government, "because it seems that they have chosen that road and will persist," but that the request is being made to the people. He continued that it is important that aside from one's political beliefs, one should appreciate truth. "You can agree or disagree with something, you have your opinion, but we need to stop with politics of lies. We cannot have a country led by a government which lies."
For his part, Castillo said that Abela has lied about the PN never raising pensions. He remarked that the PL itself had frozen pensions before for five years, and that it was under a Nationalist government led by Eddie Fenech Adami that pensions were significantly increased.
Castillo said that another lie from the PL is regarding the age for pensions not increasing following the budget. He continued that the PL said that people will not need to work for an additional year in order to receive the maximum pension. "Let us remind the people that this is not the first time the PL has done this. In 2016, the PL already raised the years you need to work for the pension from 40 to 41 years, and in this last budget, it went from 41 to 42 years," the PN MP commented. He added that this means that in order to receive the maximum pension, people will need to work an additional year, but that the PN is pledging to remove this addition under a Nationalist government.
He referred to Abela stating that the PN had the worst rate of unemployment in the EU as "another shameless lie". Castillo said that the PN at that time had the vision to move from labour-intensive work to value-added work, but that what the PL has done is go backwards and take the country back to labour-intensive work which the Maltese and Gozitan people have paid for in "increased traffic, more waiting time at the hospital, overloaded schools, electricity going out daily, and sewage spilling into the sea".
On the matter of sewage spilling into the sea, Castillo said that Abela lied when he said that there is no such thing happening. The PN MP said that the European Court of Justice found the government guilty of breaking the urban waste treatment directive, having decided that the government failed to fulfil its obligations, and that Malta is not capable of addressing its obligations until the year 2026. Castillo commented that this situation was not just flagged recently, and that the government has known about it since 2015 as that was the first time it was flagged.
He concluded by saying that the government needs to hide its sins with lies, and that it is completely cut off from the realities of the Maltese and Gozitan people.