Leaders’ debate: Malta votes on which leader they like the most

Malta’s political leaders fed the PBS audience repetition upon repetition of their claims and denouncements over the past weeks of campaigning, in yet another debate which had little to do with Europe.

In the last recorded TV debate between Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, the latter hit out at Labour’s governance while the previous accused him of being “simply negative”; Muscat told voters Saturday was “a choice between me and him” while Busuttil told voters to protest against the Labour government.

In the second half, Green Party chairperson and candidate Arnold Cassola dealt a few uppercuts of his own to Muscat and Busuttil, telling the PN leader he had “pigged out” on direct order consultancies from the Nationalist administration; and berating Muscat for embracing disgraced candidate Cyrus Engerer, convicted on vilification charges.

Busuttil’s first salvo came in a barrage of questions addressed directly at Muscat: why the discrimination on medicine distribution; why the vindictive transfers; why doesn’t he disclose the Henley contract; why did he endorse Engerer as a ‘Labour soldier of steel’?

“We’re not perfect,” Muscat said after playing down Busuttil’s questions as a shower of “negativity”. “But we have done a lot. Saturday’s election is a choice between me and the Opposition leader. A choice between positivity and negativity,” the prime minster said, resting on the “negativity” keyword and his “positive energy” buzzwords all throughout the ‘debate’.

Contrasted with Busuttil, Muscat set much store in his boast that Labour had fulfilled 33% of its electoral programme: reducing utility rates, deliver income tax cuts, free childcare to over 2,000 families, extending stipends to repeater students, pay back VAT on car registration tax, the Enemalta investment and judicial reform.

Busuttil found little joy in Muscat’s ‘reply’, claiming that the Prime Minister had avoided answering questions “on the things that affect people the most” – again citing the civil service transfers, negotiations on EU funds for industry, the Henley contract, the distribution of medicines under the POYC scheme, and his defence of Cyrus Engerer.

Again, a series of questions: why had the contract with ElectroGas not been published, and asked whether the new LNG power plant was really on deadline for 2015 after only one firm from the energy consortium had signed the contract? He also took to task Muscat for allowing Enemalta to run its Delimara power plant extension on heavy fuel oil, when he had dubbed the plant a “cancer factory” during the elections.

Muscat on his part took Busuttil to task over his criticism of the government’s IIP. “He should state that it was one of his MPs who gave Henley & Partners a published endorsement; or that another of his MPs was representing the company that lost out on the IIP concession; or that even Ann Fenech, the PN’s executive committee president, and the gentleman who presented Busuttil a petition from expats in Australia against the IIP, were now agents for the citizenship programme.”

The second half of the debate saw AD candidate Arnold Cassola ignite the humdrum pace.

Apart from exhorting voters to keep giving other party candidates their secondary preferences, Cassola also focused on European issues, pointing out how Labour and Nationalist MEPs had voted “in favour” of extraditing Edward Snowden over his NSA leaks; and against having harsher penalties on fiscal evasion.

He also gave Busuttil and Muscat an equal dose of annoyance: “we had been waiting hospital queues and corridors under the PN, and now we’re still doing it under Labout; we have an 11% illiteracy rate among young people; a high school-leaver rate.”

He conceded that Busuttil’s direct orders and another cool million pocketed by his firm ECRS “were not irregular”, but he turned to the Opposition leader to tell him: “You must admit you did pig out on the direct orders”; before turning to Muscat to berate him for giving his wife’s business partner in New York, a €70,000 salary as tourism envoy.

Cassola was also stern on Muscat’s endorsement of Cyrus Engerer: “how you can insult the real soldiers of steel, people like my grandfather John F. Marks [a founder of the Labour movement]?”

After Cassola, it was back to business for the two leaders: Busuttil claimed Muscat’s jobs for the boys and political staff will cost €22 million a year in salaries, while Muscat accused him of negativity in the face of positive economic results on job creation and GDP growth.

“He mocks a 2c decrease in fuel prices when his firm took millions in direct orders: both him and his firm took money in direct orders, to provide consultancy on various projects,” Muscat said, before lambasting Busuttil for failing to take a stand on civil unions.

“When we came to the big decisions, such as the introduction of civil unions… I was told that 80% of people were against the introduction of gay adoption – to me it was the principle of equality that was at stake, and I stuck my neck out to take that direction. You can disagree with me, but you cannot abstain – like the Opposition leader did in his first big test on this country’s direction.”

Cassola’s second intervention was a call for “a Europe and Malta of equal opportunities”, saying that nobody should be granted favours by their MP to skip hospital queues, or – turning to Muscat – see hospital supply tenders’ have their deadlines renewed three times “so that some blue-eyed boy gets the chance to apply for the tender.”

Busuttil again launched an attack on Labour’s inner core and jobs given to confidants and party activists, also accusing Muscat of hijacking the police and army by appointing the PL’s former legal procurator as Commissioner of Police, and family friend as AFM commander. “Equality? We have become a country of first-class citizens forming part of the Labour core, and the rest… today we don’t have ‘Malta Taghna Lkoll’ but a Malta that belongs to the clique.”

Muscat, unable to resist a parting shot packed with mud, replied: “I didn’t want to go down the same road… but should I not say that it is the Opposition leader’s own cousin who runs the government pharmaceutical service?” he stated, in reply to Busuttil’s own protestations on the distribution of medicines.

“Busuttil wants you to show me the yellow card, but not to judge him: when I said this was a choice between two leaders, he said that he was not there to be judged.”