People’s vote is only weapon remaining in fight for democracy in Malta, Delia says

​Adrian Delia urges people to go out to vote in Saturday's election which will 'determine Malta’s future'

Adrian Delia was speaking at an event in Nadur, Gozo on Tuesday
Adrian Delia was speaking at an event in Nadur, Gozo on Tuesday

Saturday’s election is not only one for local councils and MEP seats, but will also determine the future of Malta, Adrian Delia said.

The Nationalist Party leader, speaking at a party event in Gozo on Tuesday, said people had to choose between either staying home and complaining, or speaking up through their vote, which was “the only weapon remaining to save democracy” in Malta.

“Do not give this weapon to someone else,” Delia said, “He who stays home is saying ‘yes’ to Joseph Muscat and to corruption.”

Delia made reference to a Council of Europe (CoE) report on Malta, a draft copy of which Times of Malta said today it had seen. Quoting from the draft report, Delia said the CoE concluded that Malta had a dysfunctional democratic system, and that it urged Maltese law enforcement bodies to end the prevalent climate of impunity by prosecuting those who were suspected of involvement in scandals exposed by murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and her colleagues.

“These words condemn the government. A climate of impunity means that you can kill someone with no consequence… it is practically anarchy,” Delia said, “The systems which are supposed to be there to safeguard us - the police, courts and Attorney General - are finished.”

Malta, he said, had become the vulnerable part of Europe through which criminality could enter. “They use our banks to introduce dirty money.”

Delia also spoke about Gozo, saying that while the PN had changed Malta’s sister island for the better, the current government “doesn’t care about Gozitans”.

Despite a list of promises for Gozo in successive budgets, not one of them has yet come to fruition, Delia noted.

He emphasised that before any permanent link with Malta is built, Gozo needed immediate solutions. “Gozitans can’t keep waiting.”

Delia said that the PN would be committing itself to giving Gozo regional status, to providing connectivity solutions and to regenerating an island “which is dying”.

He added, moreover, that it was unacceptable that a Gozitan worker be paid €2,300 less annually for doing the same work as someone living in Malta, promising that his party would be doing everything possible to put a stop to such an injustice immediately.