Busuttil: Muscat can no longer fool the electorate

PN leader dubs Muscat’s unveiling of the Malta-Italy energy interconnector with counterpart Matteo Renzi as “just another gimmick” for the prime minister.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil. Photo: Ray Attard
Opposition leader Simon Busuttil. Photo: Ray Attard

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has kept up the heat on Labour’s political record in its first two years of power, claiming that Joseph Muscat’s administration has presided over a series of injustices, a climate of tacit subordination, and also insisting that disgraced former minister Manuel Mallia is set for a Cabinet comeback.

Busuttil said Mallia – sacked by Muscat when he refused to resign over the results of an inquiry that found shortcomings in the way he handled an incident in which his chauffeur fired two bullets at a hit-and-run motorists – had been earmarked for the foreign ministry.

“We know now that when the prime minister dubs one of his men ‘a soldier of steel’, it’s a prelude to an appointment – and everyone at the foreign ministry is aware that a change is in the offing,” Busuttil said.

The PN leader also said that Muscat’s unveiling of the Malta-Italy energy interconnector with counterpart Matteo Renzi was “just another gimmick” for the prime minister.

“I hope he will have the magnanimity to tell Renzi that he is only cutting the ribbon and that it was the Nationalist administration that kick-started the interconnector… Muscat is only boasting about other people’s hard work,” Busuttil said.

Simon Busuttil said Muscat could not fool his electorate any more than he already had, saying that the Labour government had failed in its pledges to deliver an LNG plant on time, and to inculcate a culture of political responsibility and meritocracy. “I have also seen people being actually scared of speaking out. To me the PN is a party that’s been a beacon of liberty and freedom of expression. And yet today I feel people are staying silent, scared of being associated with us for fear of reprisal.

“I’m ready to give these people this party’s protection. Have no fear, say what you have to say, because I will be there for you. The PN is keeping its eyes wide open on these injustices, and the time will come when we will address these injustices.”

Busuttil also repeated his ‘ATM’ acronym in describing Muscat’s tenure, deriding the administration for its failure to deliver on accountability, transparency and meritocracy. “It’s no longer ‘Malta for everybody’ [Malta Taghna Lkoll] but Malta for the clique,” Busuttil said.

On party radio 101FM, Busuttil played down Muscat’s insistence that the Opposition leader was ‘nowhere to be seen’ in the wake of allegations that the former Gozo minister Giovanna Debono presided over a works-for-votes ruse financed by the ministerial budget.

“The prime minister only needs to switch on Radio 101 and Net TV to see me… or perhaps he can tell PBS to give us fair coverage for our activities. I am out there meeting people…. But the prime minister only mocks people and throws mud at them. This is not my style. I want to change the way we do politics – I want people to regain their faith in politics and politicians.”

The PN starts off in these local elections for 34 councils as the underdog, with Labour leading by 17 points from a 57.3% majority in 2012. Busuttil’s main thrust in these elections was focussing on locality issues: “I spoke to people and showed them the difference between Labour and Nationalist councillors, showing them what PN-led councils had done and Labour-led councils did not do. Muscat has treated these elections like a general election. We were honest about what we can offer.”