Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg said critical finance and unemployment data is being withheld to shield the government from voter backlash over its spending.
Speaking out after reports that the NSO delayed the publication to comply with "silent day" voting laws, Borg pointed out that the statistics agency had previously released similar data on the silent day of the 2022 election.
He highlighted newly released European Central Bank figures showing that national debt has soared to nearly €12 billion, including a €1 billion borrowing spree in the two months leading up to the election announcement.
The Malta Independent earlier in the day reported how the NSO had published government finance statistics on 25 March 2022, the day before the election, which was also silent day.
Borg said that the statistics were being hidden because the government did not want people to realise its obscene spending.
“The government had another Budget before it if it wanted to, but opted for an election where it is now promising everything under the sun,” Borg said.
Borg on Wednesday pledged that the proposed waste incinerator will not be built close to Naxxar if his party is elected to government this weekend, as he used one of his final political activities of the campaign to run through the party’s environmental proposals.
Borg was speaking in Naxxar, which also featured short speeches by each candidate on the 10th electoral district, and promised that a proposed incinerator at Magħtab would not happen there, amidst continuous concerns from residents.
“We want to guarantee that your health is a priority, that we can safeguard your environment, and prove to you that we have listened to the residents,” he told supporters.
Borg attacked the PL’s environmental credibility, saying that despite a glitzy pledge to spend €700 million on environmental projects, the PL government’s Project Green spent €2 on marketing for every €1 spent on trees.
He said that the PN is promising a park in every locality, and said that this being in the party’s electoral programme is “serious leadership”, because people will be able to hold the party to account.
Borg continued by mentioning another planned initiative, titled ‘Aesthetic Malta’ which would aim to beautify Malta’s towns and villages. One of the first initiatives, he said, would be to run electricity wires underground rather than at street level.
“At the end of the day, aesthetic development is good: with serious planning we can see that we have development that is easy on the eye and that is for the good of Malta and Gozo’s identity,” he said.
On planning, Borg said that it is clear that the government has had no plan for years. “In recent days we say a big risk of a tragedy in this locality,” Borg said, referring to how residents had to be evacuated from their homes as the foundations of a new development failed.
“For this government, we need to lose a life for them to take action. They do not work to prevent bad things that might happen; that’s why when we speak about planning, we are promising a wide and holistic reform,” he said.
Borg ran through other promises. He said that the party would ensure that decisions for the reclassification for Outside Development Zones could only be taken via a two-thirds majority vote in Parliament.
He also said that a PN government would reform the law for planning appeals to ensure that construction cannot happen while a project is under appeal – but to also ensure that appeals can only take a maximum of six months.
But the party’s “biggest and most holistic reform”, Borg said, will be to the country’s Local Plans, which have not been changed since 2006.
“We will address this in the first legislature. We will reform them to address the needs of our country; to guarantee that open spaces are safeguarded, that UCAs are safeguarded, and to create synergy with other policies,” he said.
He said that this can guarantee a better quality of life to Maltese people. He said that the Labour Party knows that it has failed in this area because it was implemented a wellbeing index in its own manifesto.
Borg also promised that a PN government would complete a race track for motorsport enthusiasts.
“We need a fresh breath, and a government that fulfils what it promises,” he concluded.