Muscat’s advice to Iceland, Mangion’s DNA comment last year, and endless quips on the PL leader’s unpunctuality... yes, it’s open season on Labour. DAVID DARMANIN reports
Just over 24 hours before the end of the campaign, the PN yesterday held its last in a series of public dialogues, this time in the Nationalist heartland of Sliema.
Characterised by repeated barbs about PL leader Joseph Muscat’s tardiness, the event was attended predominantly by elderly supporters residing in Sliema or St Julian’s.
The event preceded the timely inauguration of St Anne’s Square that evening, where the Magic Kiosk formerly stood. In his opening speech, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi described the refurbishment of the square as “a small but strong symbol of what we are giving back to Sliema.”
“You suffered for so many years with construction, noise and building debris, and we understand this,” he said.
“The message I delivered at a business breakfast this morning is that we are going through a storm,” he said. “So this is not business as usual. Just like in other countries around the world, there have been victims of the global recession in Malta. Overtime decreased, people lost their part-time job and others previously working a five-day week roster are now working on a four-day week. But this country is still moving forward. I visited the Toly Products plant yesterday – which committed itself to invest €13 million in a new plant.
“I arrived 30 minutes late there because Joseph Muscat had left me waiting for the debate held before my appointment at Toly,” he remarked.
The Prime Minister himself arrived 20 minutes late for yesterday’s public dialogue, while MEP candidate Alex Perici Calascione was 40 minutes late.
The visit of the Icelandic foreign minister to Malta was mentioned repeatedly throughout the event – with the Prime Minister claiming that when he heard the story of how the Icelandic economy collapsed recently, he “froze”.
“Because Iceland did not enter the EU and because it does not use the Euro as its currency, the Kroner collapsed. People are now getting half the value of their pensions; depositors cannot withdraw their money from banks. The Icelandic minister told me that Malta’s EU membership saved us. When, one and a half years ago, we said that ‘together everything is possible’, we meant it. And it is in this togetherness that we joined the EU and got the Euro in our country.”
Among the other speakers was environmentalist MEP candidate Alan Deidun, who came dressed in an unusual turquoise T-shirt bearing the words “I have European DNA” on one side, and “I don’t burn EU flags” on the other.
“The environment is central to PN strategy, and the PN will bring more investment in the environment thanks to the EU,” he began. “A particular PL candidate did not even know how many environmental funds are allocated to Malta. So far we have spent €30 million. From 2007 to 2012, €300 million have been allocated. When the PL said they we were going to get Lm1 million in all from the EU, they were wrong. It is actually €1 million every week for the environment only.”
Deidun went on to defend Gonzi’s delay in announcing measures for the much-awaited MEPA reform, saying it was “a good thing because the Prime Minister did not want to make a political football out of MEPA.”
Turning his guns on the PL, Deidun accused Joseph Muscat for flaunting his efforts “in trying to make Malta miss out on €17 million for the Sant’Antnin recycling plant.”
Deidun pointed out that the PN does not “wave flags at such events, we leave our flags home.”
Perhaps because this last statement was misinterpreted by some members of the crowd, a dozen supporters quickly produced EU flags and started waving them.
In a feeble attempt to make up for the gaffe, Deidun said: “We don’t distribute flags to supporters here.”
“The message on my T-Shirt may be provocative,” he continued. “But this is because someone once said that we have something strange in our DNA. Of course we do. We have Europe in our DNA.”
In his final remarks, Deidun said: “It was a good thing that the PN government decided to leave Labourites occupying public positions. But this now seems to be working against us because some people are trying to put spokes in the wheels (ifixxkluna).”
On her part, MEP candidate Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas was the first speaker to acknowledge the Sliema Local Council candidates present and wish them luck.
On immigration, Metsola Tedesco Triccas said that this “requires a European solution.”
“As EU citizens we have the right to ask the EU to help us out with immigration,” she said. “Had it been up to Joseph Muscat, we would have been left out of Europe and we would have had to fight the problem alone.”
Accusing the PL of making “a political football out of immigration”, Metsola Tedesco Triccas said: “My message to Joseph Muscat is that whenever people try scoring with political footballs, all we can get is auto-goals, to the detriment of our children.”
“We will be insisting to be heard in the European Parliament,” she continued. “PL MEPs either do not know where they have to sit, or do not know what they’re voting for.”
On employment, the PN frontrunner said that this is “Malta’s biggest challenge.”
“We confront this challenge instead of embarking on a mudslinging campaign,” she charged. “The PN was always the party for both the employer and the employee, because its policies have always sought to reach the balance between the two.”
Tedesco Triccas went on to say: “Joseph Muscat should be ashamed of himself for arriving 30 minutes late for a televised debate without apologising to the Prime Minister, or even worse, to the PBS crew whom he left waiting. The message is that the PL is always late. It was late in recognising that democracy is the way forward for Malta, it was late in recognising that the EU is the way forward for Malta, it was late in recognising that pluralism is the way forward for Malta and it is now late in seeing how the European Parliament works.”
Star candidate Simon Busuttil urged greater voter participation on Saturday.
“It is important for people to vote, and to vote for PN candidates, because it is the PN candidates who know how to best use the membership tool in the EU,” he said.
“We mentioned the example of Iceland today, and it is important for us to remember that it was Joseph Muscat himself who gave the wrong advice to the Icelandic government in 2002. Thankfully, Malta did not take Joseph Muscat’s advice. The PL wanted to make an Iceland in the Mediterranean rather than a Switzerland in the Mediterranean.
“But this time round, the Icelandic government took advice from Lawrence Gonzi and not from Joseph Muscat. Tools must be entrusted to those who know how to use them. So here I am appealing not just to Nationalists, but also to Labourites and those who voted AD four years ago, to see that the PN MEPs worked for them too. People staying home will let others vote for them.”
Concluding the event was PN general secretary Paul Borg Olivier, whose speech was characterised by eulogies to Gonzi.
“Only 28 hours are left until the campaign ends, and I am here thanking all local council and MEP candidates. I must also send my regards to one of the youngest Sliema people here – Thomas Gonzi (the Prime Minister’s grandson), three months old, who is a symbol of the wealth we are generating for the future.
“The Prime Minister 20 years ago said that the test of human beings comes when times are most difficult,” he said. “Now the country is going through difficult times, and this is when we are being tested. Remember that the Icelandic Minister did not go to France, or Spain, or Italy or any other country. He came to Malta.”
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