[WATCH] Joseph Muscat: 'Take the PN with a bucket of salt'

The PN should be taken with a 'bucket'—not a pinch—of salt, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said, in a denouncement of what he called the PN's U-turns on the Malta-Gozo tunnel.

Muscat was speaking at a press conference in Xaghra, in Gozo, where he announced the list of candidates contesting the local council elections in Gozo.

"The Nationalist Party should be taken with a bucket of salt. This is a party that makes U-turns and does not commit," Muscat said.

The PN was the first to propose a permanent link between Malta and Gozo in 2012 and backed its construction in Parliament last month. Muscat said, however, following a televised debate with PN leader Adrian Delia on Xtra, that the party was getting cold feet.

“During the televised debate on Thursday night, Opposition leader Adrian Delia expressed concern over the tunnel and said we should carry out studies and hold a consultation before we decide on whether to go ahead with the project," Muscat said. "This is a party that proposed it, a party that backed it up in 2017 and a party that voted in favour of it in Parliament and now is saying that it has its reservations. Labour, on the other hand, promised it once, and we are going to build it."

He added that this should be a lesson for Gozitans who should acknowledge that Labour was the only party to take them seriously. "The PN will not implement whatever they promise. All they care about is your vote," he said.

Muscat insisted that he was looking forward to the electorate's judgement on May 25 when the local council and MEP elections are to take place but said that Labour supporters should go out and vote and ignore the telltale signs that it was going to be an easy win for Labour.