Cross swords between PN and PL on credibility, the environment

Representatives from the Labour and Nationalist parties clashed on Wednesday over issues of credibility, as well as their respective environmental and economic credentials.

The issues were raised during a debate organised by the Broadcasting Authority where PN candidate Julie Zahra took her Labour colleagues to task on Labour’s pledge to invest €700 million in environmental initiatives in the next five years.

“How credible can the Labour Party be with its pledge to invest in the environment when it spent the last five years chopping trees and eating up agricultural areas to widen roads…now you want to create open spaces with trees,” she said.

She stated that the PL had promised a lot in 2017 but gave Malta the complete opposite. It promised better roads, but the country still had roads that were prone to flooding when it rained. 

Labour candidates Byron Camilleri and Jonathan Attard struck back,  saying the PN had amended its electoral programme several times because it was laden with mistakes and the election found the PN unprepared.

“What version are you referring to?” Camilleri asked sarcastically when a reference was made to the PN programme.

Camilleri claimed that the new economic sectors promised by the PN already existed. This includes esports and 3D printing. He ridiculed the party for failing to make “basic research” such as to see that Malta Enterprise already had an office in Gozo and the GU Clinic had started offering services in Gozo last May.

Although he said Labour’s electoral program would be launched on Friday, the party was already revealing its key proposals in the early hours of the campaign. “Never did people have a clearer choice between the past and the future,” he said.

PN candidate Ivan Bartolo said corruption was costing the Maltese economy €725 million a year and these funds should instead be invested in new sectors. “The country needs a new direction and new industries. The country needs the PN in government because it is the only one which has a vision for the country,” he insisted.

According to surveys, 70% of youths want to leave Malta as they see no future here. According to him, this is why the Nationalist Party wanted to invest in ten sector that would create employment and bring investment to Malta. 

Jonathan Attard, Labour candidate, said that the PN was a guarantee people would return to when it was in power. It included austerity measures and excessive deficit procedures, frozen stipends, pensions, and spiralling unemployment.

“This is why the PN is a party of the past. Robert Abela offers certainty that only Robert Abela can provide. “People know where they stand with the Labour Party in government,” he said.

Camilleri and Attard both spoke at length about how the government distributed €800 million in assistance during the pandemic and had saved 105,000 jobs.

“If you didn’t do that then who could have done it,” Bartolo asked them rhetorically.