Bernard Grech leads charge for faster vaccination in Reno Bugeja Jistaqsi encounter

Bernard Grech interviewed on Reno Bugeja Jistaqsi

Veteran TV journalist Reno Bugeja yesterday hosted Opposition leader Bernard Grech in his first encounter on MaltaToday’s Reno Bugeja Jistaqsi. 

The engaging one-to-one interview with the newly-elected PN leader saw a confident Grech riding on recent positive polling and making an impassioned plea for a faster vaccine roll-out to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in Malta. 

Grech said the PN was prepared to face a general election should Robert Abela call an early contest in the wake of the COVID vaccine roll-out, despite polls suggesting Labour could maintain its unprecedented vote gaps from 2013 and 2017. “A football team is always ‘in training’ a year prior to a World Cup tournament,” Grech said by analogy. “The PN is renewing itself and strengthening itself, and it will be prepared as a government-in-waiting. Whether the chance to be elected or not is probable or not is something up to the people to decide... the surveys show us making inroads. We’re not there yet.” 

Presenter Reno Bugeja

Grech said Abela was responding to the PN’s advances with “political manoeuvring”, accusing the PM of arrogance in his actions. “The people out there want politicians who tell them the truth. It is an important point that the PM is underestimating.” 

He accused the PM of misleading his electorate with the instant resignation of Gavin Gulia as MP so that he can co-opt an MP of his choice. “The system is being used to mislead the people,” Grech said, refusing a comparison with his own co-option. “I was elected by paid-up members, so we used the system legally to reflect the party grassroots’ choice.” 

Grech was vehement in his criticism on the Maltese government’s COVID-19 strategy. “All this talk about Malta not having had its lockdown... go tell that to my mother, or my father, who have been unable to leave their homes since March. You go tell it to any elderly relative...  

“I certainly am not in favour of an ‘economic’ lockdown. But let’s not hurt those who are indeed locked-down, who lost their jobs, students who cannot go to university, by saying that we did not have this drastic change in our lives. 

“And now we have the roll-out of a vaccine which, despite all the pomp for its arrival, will only have 13,000 doses administered by Monday coming. If we don’t hasten the process, the full immunisation will take an entire year. We need to be more transparent and ensure a faster roll-out of the vaccine, and stop taking people for a ride. Let’s tell them the truth: it is not business as usual.”